
Glass 



~P7f Id 



Book^ 






DOBELL COLLECTION 



JtUJL 



POEMS, 



WRITTEN 



LANCHESTEB; 



BY 



JOHN HODGSON, Clerk. 



Tu lucem aspicere audes? tu bos intueri? tu in fcro, tu in 
urbe 9 tu in civium esse conspectu? — ClCERO. 



LONDON: 

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, AND SOLD BY LONGMAN, 

HURST, REES AND ORMEJ 

AND D. AKENHEAD AND SONS, NEWCASTLE, 



1807. 






H7 



205449 
'13 



PRINTED BY 
AKENHEAD & SONS. 



TO 

T. WHITE, Senior, 

AND 

W. T. GREENWELL ; Esquires, 

THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 

BY 

THEIR FRIEND AND SERVANT, 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 

AT a time, when the claim to poetical 
talent seems no longer to be attributed to innate 
power, or to any peculiar complexion of the human 
mind; when the press every day teems with polite 
and well-finished verse, it may demand an apology to 
offer to the public a work, trifling and unimportant, 
as the present volume. 

And after I have confessed, it is neither 
from the flattery or the persuasion of my friends, nor 
from any confidence in the merit of my own perform- 
ance, that I send it into the world, I hope I may be 
credited. To say I am entirely unanxious about its 
favourable reception, would belie my feelings. Authors 
of every description must be agitated with some ex- 



11 PREFACE. 

pectations of the good opinion of their readers ; and, 
if I have any motive for publishing this volume, it 
certainly originated in a desire to draw myself from 
obscurity into notice. My scheme may be blameable^ 
and every way unsuccessful. But, when I recollect 
the pleasure I had in composing these poems, and the 
hours of sickness and anxiety they have alleviated, I 
shall never look back with penitence on the time I 
have bestowed upon them. 

Dining a residence, at Lanchester, of a 
little more than two years, my time was chiefly occu- 
pied in educating the children of the village, and in 
attending to the duties of an extensive curacy. But 
my health required some relaxation from professional 
employment ; and that was chiefly sought for in the 
society and hospitality of the families in the neighbour- 
hood, in wandering into the fields, in botanical re- 
creations, in searching for antiquities about the 
Roman station, and in occasional attempts at poetry. 



PREFACE. Ill 

Woodlands; which has been chosen 
for the subject of the first poem, is situated near Lan- 
chester, in the county of Durham, and is the estate of 
Thomas White, Esq. Prior to the year 1777? it was 
a wild heath. For improvements in it, according to 
the Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement 
of Arts, -&c, Mr White received their gold medal 
ten times, and their silver medal once. The follow- 
ing description of it previous to its inclosure, is from 
Mr White's own report. 

" The ground of this plot, whilst in a 
u state of nature, was covered over with ling, fern, 
" broom and bad grass, and rushes in" the wet places; 
" the high parts of it very bad land, of a channelly 
" quality, and not many inches from a grit stone rock : 
" lower down the hills, the land is of a better quality-, 
" affording a tolerable depth of soil, but was then 
u very cold and swampy, for want of draining. The 
a features of this inclosure are rather gentle than 
(t bold, inclining from the north and south, down to 



IV PREFACE. 

" a narrow valley in the middle, which continues from 
" east to west, through the adjacent country; over 
" which a small but petulant trout stream wantonly 
" meandered in so many ridiculous mazes, as choaked 
" its own progress, and rendered the whole of this 
" small valley, containing about eleven acres, of my 
" best and most sheltered land, almost useless/' — 
Transact, of the Soc. of Arts &c. vol. 5. p. 10. 

On the second poem, the notes I have 
given supersede the necessity of any explanation in 
my preface ; and the pieces, I have ventured to call 
odes, are, perhaps, more in want of a sufficient apology 
for their insertion, than of a history of their com- 
position. 

Gateshead, 
Jime, 1807. 



WOODLANDS, A POEM. 

— Aliam atque aliam culturam dulcis agelli 
Tentabant; fructusque feros mansuescere terra 
Cernebant indulgendo, blandeque colundo. 

Lucret. 



WOODLANDS, 



O thou, who scatter'st, over weary heads, 
Sweet drops of mercy, and the dews of rest, 
Is there, O Sleep, some island of delight; 
Some paradise of never-fading green, 
"Where thou and health upon the silver ways 
Of moonlight walk ? Thy aid, alas ! in vain 

With sighs and supplications have I sought. 

A thousand awful recollections fill 

My soul. Horrors ideal and the guilt 

Of many a crime, unblotted out in heaven, 

With starts convulsive stretch my painful eyes. 

Love, Hope, Despair and Grief; faint gleams of joy; 

Futurity and Fear, on sable wings, 

A dread assembly, hover round my bed, 
a2 



4 WOODLANDS. 

O Sleep, again, thou partial goddess, hear 
Thy vot'ry's prayer. I never made the night 
Reecho with the shrieks and groans of death, 
And yet the murderer sleeps. E'en in thy arms 
The houseless beggar throws his crippled limbs, 
And smiles. But let the wretch be happy. Me 
Poetic thoughts ; the handy works of God, 
Shall exercise. Of wilds to gardens turned ; 
And hills storm-beaten waving now with pine; 
Or clad in gold or grazed by harmless sheep, 
Midst nature's war, distressed, I rise to sing. 

Sleep on rough world: thy many million sons, 
That all day long have tugged the dashing oar ; 
Guided the plowshare through the stubborn glebe ; 
Endured the forge's heat ; the tyrant's frown ; 
And all the sad servility of toil: 
They ask no opiates to secure their rest; 
They never bend the suppliant knee to sleep ; 
But close their eye, as closing evening comes ; 



WOODLANDS. 

All night are happy ; and at morning rise, 
Cheerful as does the harbinger of day. 

But in this elemental strife ; this war 
Of Nature's children, who shall tune the lyre ? 
While the loud blast, with yells and hollow groan, 
Stops at short intervals to shake my roof; 
While the thick clouds, in many a lurid form, 
Roll heavily along, and yon pale orb, 
Flashing and starting from their hilly folds, 
Wanders in fearful hurry to the west ; 
While Rudeness thus usurps the reign of night, 
How shall I sing of little, spangling stars ; 
Of Night's composure, and the silent Hours 
That pour their stillness o'er the anxious soul, 
And favour rest ? How shall I paint the mead, 
Encircled round with hawthorn, blooming fair, 
And strewn with buttercups, that steal their hues 
From amber rivers of the opening day ? 
Or make my visit to some shelter'd copse, 



6 WOODLANDS. 

Where, in the mild and sunny noons of spring, 

Blushes the primrose, and the daisy shews 

Its modest orb, hung round with carmine fringe ? 

But contrast teaches us the worth of things, 
And sets a double relish on the joys, 
That stand in sight of danger or of pain. 
Hence the strange pleasure, that we feel, when winds 
Seize on the billows by their angry brows, 
And huge ships drive around, like autumn leaves : 
Hence the lone herdsman, while he hears the din 
Of distant battle clang upon his ear, 
Safe, from his craggy eminence, beholds, 
With pleasing horror, Havoc at his work. 

Then, while depression sits upon my soul, 
And tempest revels through the troubled air, 
I'll send Imagination forth to play 
With woods, and cultur'd fields, and lawns ; 
With warbling birds, and Flora's lowly tribe: 



WOODLANDS. 

And tell, O WHITE, how thy industrious hand 
Drove startled Barrenness from all her rights 
Of old possession ; and morasses deep, 
And wind-swept hills, in verdure such adorned, 
As clothes the meadows of some antient stream, 



And while, in thought, I tread these alleys green, 
With all the seasons of the changing year, 
And sing thy charms, Retirement, and the charms 
Of social joy, ne'er let my song be called, 
The coward offering of a venal mind. 
Because I cannot write immortal verse, 
I shall not therefore bolster up my head, 
With ease inglorious, and a prey become 
To misery, that indolence creates. 
Let guilt be gulled with mercenary praise, 
And charioted in pomp, be rolled along 
Through gazing streets. Let Wonder, idiot-like, 
In memory-assaulting language, tell, 
E'en to the vallies lodging in the skies, 



8 WOODLANDS. 

Of statesmen, toiling at the helm of power ; 

Of brawling patriots, and the warrior chiefs, 

Whose souls in anger rushed through staring wounds, 

And flew, all bloody, to the gates of heaven : 

My song shall be of him, whose labour taught 

A wilderness to smile ; who claims no praise 

From warlike deeds, but bread procures for man. 

O ! could my efforts bid his memory live, 

I'd fix, indelible, as are the hues 

Of laurel or yon azure arch, his name 

Upon the rolls of time : that, should the arm 

Of order cease to press on Faction's chains, 

And that dire monster, reassuming all 

His horrid strength, o'er city, grove and seat 

Of rural quiet, like a comet pass, 

Shaking his burning hair and firing all ; — 

Should tasteless opulence, or freakish mode, 

Cut into patches of fantastic form, 

This beautiful economy of fields and trees, 

Which seems the happy work of nature's hand; 



WOODLANDS. 9 

E'en then some mind, enamoured of the charms 

Of rural elegance and bold design, 

Our hills and vallies might again invest 

In all the fair variety of wood, 

And happy cottage, mead and cultur'd fields, 

Not thirty suns have yet, in annual round, 
Oone to yon starry pastures, where the goat 
Eternal habitation holds, and, muffling up 
The face of morning with a lowering veil, 
Down from the gushing cat'racts of the sky 
Pours his dark torrent, since no hedge or tree; 
Nothing but heath, agrostis, # hardy plant ; 
And rush, delighting in the foulest swamps, 
Covered the spot, which now employs my song. 
It was a dreary scene, where oft at night 
Th' unsteady glare, that mocks the traveller's eye 
Shot gleaming round. Here sailed the hawk, and here 

B 

* Bent-grass. 



10 WOODLANDS. 

Screamed the shrill glead, and plied her stormy song 

The curlew. Tenant of the poorest soils, 

The tedious lapwing, too, her tumbling flights 

Performed ; and, basking on the sunny banks, 

The beauteous adder coiled his shining length. 

Browsing on sapless heath, a shepherd's care, 

By day a scanty maintenance procured ; 

And, as approaching twilight threw its shades 

Of dimness o'er the world, in regular march, 

Sought out the sheltering corner of some hill, 

And, grouped together, laid in harmless sleep. 

Here too, in Leo's sultry reign, and while 

The hot and ruddy virgin ruled the year, 

The toiling sportsman ranged. But now, no more 

The curlew or the lapwing's voice is heard ; 

No bleating of a hungry flock at eve ; 

No roar of guns t' affright the jocund lark, 

Or stop the blackbird s song : the fearful grouse 

Have fled to hills, defying culture's art, 

And rudely pushed into inclement skies. . 



WOODLANDS. 11 

And, rushing now on fancy's airy mind, 
Methinks I see fair Culture leading forth 
The sons of Labour to these barren lands. 
As on they move, Sterility alarmed, 
In yelling terror, quits her heathy throne. 
And, as an eagle, when a shepherd tries 
To scale its eyry and destroy its young, 
Rises and plunges, with distracted haste, 
The hungry demon rages, flies, and falls. 
With hope and fear, alternately possessed, 
She sails away, then reassumes her seat. 
But see! 'tis done. The blazing faggot lights 
Her purple glory, and she takes her way 
To mountains, brushed by surlier winds, and where, 
Associate with the Genius of the storm, 
Midst clouds and naked rocks, she sits, 
Like exil'd majesty, in sullen pride. 

Then, hail, sweet, altered spot ! hail in the robes 
Of early spring! I feel my soul refreshed ; 

b 2 



32 WOODLANDS. 

My spirits gladdened, while I send abroad 
Imagination to thy flowery fields. 
I see thee not, indeed, in cheerful trim ; 
But, torn and ruffled by the winter's rage, 
All sad and beauteous, like a mourning bride. 
Now streams of night, and now a lustrous flood 
Of liquid gold, diffusive, roll along 
The sable garments of the Scotian fir. 
Showers of destructive hail still vex the sky, 
And winds inclement, on the naked boughs 
Of elm and oak, discordant music play. 

But, lo ! majestic, on his annual orb, 
The prince of light advances to the ram, 
Proud of his jewell'd horns ; and stealing out, 
From all the western chambers of the sky, 
In countless swarms, the race of zephyrs come. 
Their genial breath imbues the humid plains 
With verdure, and to life the flowery tribe 
Woos gently. But, alas ! the furious god, 



WOODLANDS. 13 

Whose palace is behind yon restless fires, 
Which terrify the night, may yet distend 
His lungs of ice, and drive the tender throng 
Back to their odorous gardens. Dipt in blood 
And streaked with inky lines, o'er morning's face 
A veil may flutter ; and the flower, that spread 
Its joyous petals to the noon-day sun, 
At evening's close, may fold them up in death. 

But, when the year has reached the beamy star, 
Resplendent in the bull's forbidding front, 
Again the lightsome messengers of health, 
On wings, invisible to mortal eye, 
Like infant angels, from the charming w T est, 
Shall come, and, o'er the virgin's sickly cheek, 
Fresh crimson lay. Then, from her father's arms 
The blooming Genius of the spring shall leap, 
And round her loins a radiant mantle bind : 
While Chearfulness, a nymph of sprightliest eye, 
Wakes the wild language of her golden harp, 



14 WOODLANDS. 

And loads the listning habitants of air 
With sounds of sweet confusion. Pleasure, too, 
Half-rob'd and lifting high her tambourine, 
Shall wanton forth : suspended in the air, 
The whirling instrument shall seem to hang, 
While the fair actress, at extended arm, 
With graceful ease, its gingling circle thrums. 

Now Flora, loveliest of the train of spring, 
Her temples wreathed with many a blushing flower 
And loose robe floating on the sunny light, 
Calls out her children from the sleep of death 
The humble speedwells, with cerulian eye, 
And deep-ting'd violet, with fragrant breath, 
Adorn the shade : scattered o'er ev'ry mead, 
The golden spangles of the pilewort glow ; 
And, through the leafless woods, th' anemone, 
And fair oxalis, like yon world of stars, 
That croud the galaxy, serenely smile. 



WOODLANDS, 15 

Meek offspring of the earth, your fragrance breathe 
O'er hill and dale ! In all your mingled hues, 
Burst from your seeds and little folded buds! 
O'er you, as well as man, th' Almighty's eye 
Watches forever; and the lily's bell 
Is still as white, as beautiful, as sweet, 
As in the morning, when the obedient earth 
Heard the Creator's mandate, and ye sprang, 
Seed-yielding herbs, tall trees, and grassy blades, 
All-jocund into life. How r many hours 
Of sweet society I found with you, 
When grief and sickness every evening drew 
The wings of Misery above my head! 
And (hardiness may laugh) but I have thought, 
'Twas cruelty to pluck you in the bloom 
Of life, and implicate your bleeding stems, 
E'en though to make a garland for the brow 
Of her I most admire. With you I claim 
A mortal kindred: for like me to death 
Obnoxious are you all. But then, alas ! 



16 WOODLANDS, 

My death is passage to an awful state, 

In which no change of circumstance can be. 

A grain of wheat, committed to the earth, 

Produces wheat, consimular to itself; 

And souls their moral likeness still shall keep — 

Be rude and restless in the world to come, 

Or, blessing others, happy in themselves. 

In this sweet season, while the herald lark 
Wakes up the rosy hours, and morning throws 
Thin robes of crimson o'er her cloudy walls, 
And leisurely unfolds the gates of day, 
Cool breezes wanton o'er the dewy hills, 
And murmuring waters, and the rustling sounds 
Of leaves, in sweet admixture, float along 
With breath of op'ning flowers. The turtle's tale 
Steals in sad charms into its partner's nest ; 
And joy excessive, from the blackbird's throat, 
In harmony unmeditated flows 
To cheer his brooding mate. Perched on a pine, 



WOODLANDS. 17 

New gilded with the beams of orient day, 
The thrush incessant plies his am'rous song. 
Each zephyr on its wing delighted bears 
The short, but merry, descants of the wren ; 
And ev'ry tree is vocal with the notes 
Of universal love. No rufes of art 
Check the luxuriance of the linnet's glee, 
Or stop the finch'es carol. As they feel 
The tender passion fluttering through their veins 4 
They wake to rapture, and, with keen delight, 
Catch inspiration from each other's eye, 
And pour a wild song on the passing gale. 

O time of love ! of unabated bliss ! 
Why dost thou travel, with such envious haste, 
To wed with summer and despoil thy cheek 
Of virgin bloom ? Thy way is strewn with flowers, 
And, least the flinty earth thy beauteous feet 
Should bruise, a grassy carpet over-spreads 
Its bosom. Down thy polished shoulders play 



18 WOODLANDS. 

Ringlets of unshorn locks, and not a hand 
Has dared to rend thy vesture. Stop, O, stop, 
Thou genial season ! Nay thy speed increase : 
Go as thou wilt, for summer's ardent heat, 
And winter, dreary with his frozen nights, 
Alike inflame the human breast. No change 
Of season can our bosoms cool. The shears 
Of time may clip the tender wings of love, 
And age may scatter o'er our furrow'd brows 
His hoary a$hes; but, as long as life 
Pours its warm current through the heart of man, 
Some throbs of tenderness shall there be felt. 

Yonder the husbandman to toil goes forth, 
Cheerful as morning. Where the supple larch 
Bends o'er the thorny hedges to appease 
The wrath of tempest, and adorn the fields, 
The forceful share moves slowly through the land. 
The careful sower next, with measur'd step, 
Swinging his arm, consigns the hopeful seed 



WOODLANDS. 19 

Unto the humid bosom of the earth; 
And then the iron-bearded harrow comes 
The grain to bun 7 , and to smooth the soil, 
Another view presents a labourer stout, 
With shining mattock, raising from the ground 
The plough's obstructions ; while, of duller eye, 
His creeling vehicle, a carter loads 

With fragments of misshapen stones. Like one, 

That muses on the frailty of life, 

With downcast look, and full of serious thought, 

A hoary woodman, as he leaves his cot, 

Imprints die meadows with his early steps. 

Catching the breathings of the soft-limbed youth, 

Whose mansion lies beneath the middle course 

Of the descending sun, a shepherd boy 

Watches the antic gambols of the lamb, 

Or, with his flute, in many-vary 'd notes 

Calls on the slumb'rino; echoes of the woods. 



20 WOODLANDS. 

Oh ! Custom, inmate of the coldest breasts ! 
Oh ! frozen power, that nipp'st the tender buds. 
And rudely pluck'st away the op'ning blooms 
That grace the stems of genius and of art — 
Oli ! how I hate thy earthy, grov'ling mind ; 
Thy niggard precepts and thy narrow soul ! 
Thou bind'st an iron manacle around 
Our hands, and set' st us in the stocks of time. 
Thy votaries still are wretched, abject slaves 
To all the fears, the silly spells and charms, 
That Craft and Ignorance ever laid on man. 
Where are thy arts ? By savage instinct given I 
The bee, the beaver, ev'ry herding brute 
Can form some shelter from inclement winds, 
And make provision for a future storm. 
But we have crushed thy monarchy ; expelled 
Thy low delusions from our favour'd isle ; 
And see fair Science humanizing man. 
Arts flourish, and the hand of Culture spreads 
Profusion o'er our long-neglected lands, 



WOODLANDS. 21 

Charmed with the blaze of truth, th' enlighten d son 

Thinks it no crime, no trespass on the law 

Of nature or the bands of filial love, 

T' apostatize the errors of his sire. 

Free, as we are, we cannot bear thy joke. 

Our bodies liberty we still could boast, 

And brag of legislation to the world \ 

But what availed our equity of laws, 

Our liberty, our strength, and all 

Our matchless policy, while thy bad power 

Held us thy captives in a willing chain, 

And bound us down to prejudice, that cramps 

Each mental faculty and mars all good? 

Where thou art found; Barbarity resides; 

Fell Superstition holds her mystic court ; 

And men are ignorant and fields untilled. 

Once more the sunny morning to enjoy, 
To drink the healthful breeze, and hear the song 
OSf birds, sweet-warbled from each budding spray, 



£2 WOODLANDS. 

E'en Age and Sickness leave their painful beds. 

See ! from that whiten d cottage, on whose roof 

O'erhanging woods their trembling shadows wave, 

And where the babbling rill, meandring, flows 

To irrigate a garden, covered thick 

With embryo forests, tott'ring as she walks, 

A widow comes. Her feeble arm a staff 

Smooth- worn supports. Cautious and slow, she takes 

Her way along the winding avenues 

Of pine. The cherub offspring of her son, 

Playful as kids, and lively as the morn, 

Gambol before her, and with childish zeal 

Crop the wild daisy or the woodruff's wheel ; 

And, often, as they fill their little hands, 

Return to lay the treasure at her feet, 

Joy unalloy'd is not the lot of man ; 

But they, whom children with a smile ne'er blessed, 

Have never felt th' anxieties and grief, 

That fill a parent's breast. Yon matron meek, 

With patient care, was leading oa to heaven 



WOODLANDS, 23 

A num'rous family. Mysterious Fate! 

We bow submissive to thy righteous will ; 

But cannot shut the fountains of our grief, 

When they, whom nature, with a cord of love, 

Has bound upon our bosoms, lay them down 

To sleep within the chilly arms of death. 

E'en in the op ning blossom of their years, 

While on their brows the dignity of man 

Its seat was forming, and their tresses bright, 

In ringlets loose, upon their shoulders flowed, 

A lingering malady their bodies seized, 

And all, but one, were earned to the grave. 

" Is virtue thus rewarded — this the lot 

u Of beings born with countenance erect r 

" Why were my sons," she cried, "ordained to breathe 

" This vap'rous air; to crawl a little while 

" Twixt heaven and earth, and then dissolve away?" 

But time has plumed his wings with happier days. 

The placid evening of her life is spent 

In preparation for a world to come. 



24 WOODLANDS. 

No superstitious fears alarm her soul ; 
No nightly phantoms hover round her bed ; 
But, half an angel, all her thoughts are fixed 
On heaven's redeeming love, and future bliss. 

Spread, like a mantle, o'er yon sloping hills 
The forest now appears. It feels the vernal lymph 
Ascending its innumerable veins, 
And, pleased, its dappled liv'ry reassumes. 
For commerce or for war in future days, 
Of slow maturity, the sapling oak 
Unfolds his princely honors ; and the lime 
Weds his young branches to the shady beech. 
Clust'ring and dark, the Caledonian fir 
Puts on a brighter hue. The lofty spruce, 
That on Norwegian hills, by twilight seems 
A sable pyramid of dizzy height, 
Extends the branches of his gradual wheels, 
And throws his lengthening spears into the sky. 
The larch, fair native of the toweling heights, 



WOODLANDS. 35 

Whence storm-fed Po, impatient down the brows 
Of Viso, comes to kiss the blooming flowers 
Of Parma's pastures, like some beauteous maid 
At Hymen's altar, bends with graceful boughs. 
Its robe is bridal, set with dangling flowers, 
Of which the yellow male affords a dust, 
That, by the zephyr's ministerial hands, 
Borne to the purple bride, with joy, insures 
Fecundity. And trembling like a hart, 
Entangled in a hunter's toil, the poplar shakes 
His hoary tresses o'er the murm'ring brook. 
Dark alders too, the many-leaved ash ; 
The supple osier, and the slender birch 
Put on the vesture of the youthful year. 

The aged groves, that all sublimely wave 
Around the venerable seats, where lived, 
In antient days, the worthies of our isle, 
They are majestic, and the mind fulfil 
With awful reverence. Gentler are the joys 

D 



26 WOODLANDS. 

That woods, and thorn-defended fields, and lawns, 

Fresh in the youthful glories of the spring, 

And sounding with the high-tun d lay, that floats, 

From countless tongues, through all the listening air, 

Infuse into the soul. They bring to mind 

The paradise of Moses, and the isles, 

Elysian called, in Greek and Roman song. 

No parallel, indeed, can here be found 

To match with bowers Calabrian, or the groves 

Of Otaheite ; for art must vainly strive 

To bid the cocoa, in our cloudy skies, 

Hang out its milky fruit, or olives see 

The luscious grape depending from their boughs. 

Though blushing peaches grace the sunny walls, 

These lands are not the gardens of the sun, 

Watered by Ganges or La Plata's stream ; 

By nature they are sterile, moory soils, 

Compounded ill with unadhesive sand, 

And laid on aqueous beds of hardest clay. 

But nature's wants are well supplied by art. 



WOODLANDS. 2? 

The rush no longer here exhales the breath 
Of stagnant waters. Down their nightly beds, 
A thousand streams now silently devolve; 
And where the floating leaves of poa, # pressed 
The intranslucent bosom of a pool ; 
Where acid wortle,-f with a rosy flower, 
And spotted fruit, on beds of sphagna[| grew, 
Firm is the earth beneath the horse's hoof, 
And vernal-grass and purple trefoil throw, 
Their fragrant treasures on the £ales of June. 



& H 



O Mercy, thou, the gentlest child of heaven, 
Who sit'st enthroned in yon benign abode, 
That now fuil-orb'd, and then with blunted horns, 
O'er all these pines her streams of silver light 
Profusely pours — meek goddess, while I walk 
This vary'd span of misery and joy, 
Still let my soul be open to receive 
D 2 

* Poa fluitans, or Pvleadow flote-grass. f Vaccinium oxycoe- 
cus, or Cranberry, fj Bog-mosses, 



28 WOODLANDS. 

Pleasure from woods, and brooks, and fruitful fields, 

Where verdant or where golden seas display 

Their billowy wealth, or graze the speckled flocks, 

*Tis pride or madness, that despises wealth; 

But welcome poverty, if wealth exclude 

Th' enjoyment, that I feel in sunny days, 

And all the goodly prospects of our isle. 

Had I not better be deprived, at once, 

Of man's preeminence, the reasoning power, 

Than view with apathy the works of God ? 

But sure, no state of wretchedness there is, 

But, Mercy, thou hast poured into its cup 

Some drops of balm ! some lenitive of woe! 

Then you, who love the early walk, who love 
To breathe in air, just wafted from the lips 
Of ruddy morning, and behold the sun, 
Lifting his gradual disk above the earth, 
And binding all his cloudy robes with fire; 
Come let me lead you through this fairy land, 



WOODLANDS. £9 

That fixes Ignorance in stupid gaze, 
And charms the amateurs of rural scenes. 

Yonder it is ; at distance like a field 
Of soldiers, marshalled thick in war array, 
All o'er whose spears and casques of yellow bronze 
Young sunbeams play. But, as we nearer come, 
Copses irregular, and flowery fields, 
Fast crouding into southern skies present 
The minded riches of sreen sward and tree. 
"Wave upon wave they rise, a goodly shew ; 
While all the pines, saluted by the tribes 
Of viewless beings, who at morning come, 
From all the purple chambers of the east, 
Bow their young heads and bid the travellers hail. 

See ! from the heaving bosom of that grove, 
How modestly the mansion raises up 
Its roof of sober blue. No columns there 
With capitals, adorned with bending fruit. 



SO WOODLANDS. 

Or pilasters, deep buried in the wall, 

In stately ranges, stand to warn us thence. 

Deep in th' unruffled bosom of the lake 

In simple elegance, the front is seen; 

And idle columns of convolving smoke, 

Like time reverted, into nothing waste. 

On southern site, the clumpses of the lawn 

Stoop with their heads into yon azure road; 

Where, at immeasureable distance, rloat 

The dews, that just before, in trembling drops, 

Had hung on blades of grass. The morning's light, 

Thrown on the windows with unsteady glare, 

Plays on the wave, as on a mirror's breast. 

Northward, with ivy fringed, the garden wall 

Heaves on its laurel bosom ; and o'erhung, 

With loftier trees, the rural buildings throw 

Their sunny roofs, impendent o'er the sky. 

Nor chill with gloom, nor subject to the heat 
Of all the solar force, that winding path 



WOODLANDS. 

Receives us next ; for meditative minds 
Delightful haunt, whether with blooming spring, 
Or Summer lightly clad in Grecian garb, 
Or Autumn breathing fast and full of thought, 
"We love to roam. Here Arethusa's bard 
To high-harp'd melody at eve might sing 
His pastoral lavs ; or Sappho's gentle soul 
Dissolve in love, as swept her trembling hand 
Across the lyre, and Phaon was her song. 
Children of soils, that bask beneath a sun, 
Fiercer than our's, the laurels here unfold, 
To cold December winds their sable fruit, 
Enchased in leaves of never-ending green. 
When May, with smiles, detains the furious north, 
The genii of the west- wind come to so shake 
The lilach's snowy tresses ; and in sport 
To visit the laburnum's costly rills 
Of yellow bullion. Stealing from the moon 
Its hues, or when she lifts her bloody orb 
Above the wave, or rides aloft in air serene, 



32 WOODLANDS. 

The senna loosely throws its glories out 

To cheer declining summer. Ever famed 

In superstition's lore, the mountain-ash 

From branches, graceful with their burden, hangs 

Its pendent clusters of vermilion fruit. 

There spreads the yew his dark, funereal arms ; 

There waves the slender birch, and willows weep, 

Shedding, with silent grief, into the lake, 

Their morning tears. This was a barren heath! 

But now the sight, in wild'ring pleasure lost, 

Wanders o'er roses, o'er the flaunting boughs 

Of hawthorns, clasped with woodbine, and the larch,, 

Frosted with manna and sublimely thrown 

Above yon mossy cell, w 7 hich shuts the view. 

In silence and in solitude like this, 
When all the busy world was hushed asleep, 
Or nothing, but the city's distant noise 
Low-murmured on the sullen gales of night, 
Jesus, the poor man's friend, the sinner's friend, 



WOODLANDS. S3 

Where Kedron babbles through its olive groves, 
Unheard by mortal ear, conversed with heaven, 
And taught his soul that piety, he taught 
The sons of men; and hither might the saint 
Or philosophic mind at evening come 
To visit nature in her sob'rest mood ; 
To muse with Contemplation ; and t' adore 
The wonder-working hand of him, who breathed 
A reas'ning spirit through the human frame, 
And into motion pushed each mighty world. 

Thou Sun, to whom so many thousands pay 
High adoration, and at mom and eve, 
Praise to the language of their prophet's harp, 
Shall I behold thy setting orb with fear 
And apprehension, such as they must feel, 
Who think the wicked, after death, are thrown 
To howl for ever on thy heated shores ? 
Oh ! I have seen thee, o'er a western hill, 
As mild as charity, with beams as soft, 

E 



34 WOODLANDS. 

As are thy sister's in the twilight thrown 

O'er weary reapers, in their journey home. 

Thou art the centre, heat, and light of all 

Our planetary system, and thy beams 

Flow through the boundless fields of space, and turn 

TV enormous star of Herschel, with the ease 

A school-boy whips his top. But, in thy rays, 

Our dazzled reason wanders and is lost. 

We know a little, and the rest we own 

In mute astonishment and solemn gaze. 

E'en now methinks, on Inspiration's eye, 
I see dark clouds, with edges dipt in flame, 
Above th' horizon proudly thrown, and streams 
Of circling glory, o'er their swelling sides, 
Flowing away to tinge, with crimson hue, 
The outer gates, and citadels of night. 
O for a pencil, dashed in yon bright rills, 
To paint each alt'ring shade ! O for a thought, 
In which the burnish'd picture might survive ! 



WOODLANDS. 35 

But why? Fresh clouds shall robe the setting sun. 
Six thousand fleeting years have nearly passed, 
Through which returning evening has renewed 
Her charms ; has caught the poet's phrensy'd eye ; 
Has thrown bright garments o'er her western skirts; 
And eased Apollo of his fiery crown. 
And shall defection now, in Nature's spite, 
Seize on the spheres, and bid them change their course ? 
Ah no ! this healthful and this steady globe, 
Like a young giant, rises to its work, 
And makes as cheerful music in its orb, 
As in the vigorous morning of its birth. 
As twilight comes, the bat shall still perform 
Its gyry flights, and drowsy swallows sing 
A hymn of sleep to the reposing world. 
And, then, the moon shall lift her crescent horns, 
And bright-hair 'd Venus glitter in the west. 
While Mars, dim orb, and Jove, with dusky moons 
First kenned on earth by Gallileo's eyes ; 
While mighty Saturn, whom X)es Cartes has placed 

e 2 



36 WOODLANDS. 

On heaven's remotest whirlpool's awful verge, 
Wheeling with tardy majesty along; 
While all our planets and the countless suns, 
To which conjecture travels up in vain, 
For aye shall glitter on the robes of Night. 

But, in yon starry fields, I oft have thought 
The blessed souls of the redeemed in Christ 
Their habitations have ; where, unconfined 
With every thing, that men material call, 
Swifter than light, from star to star they fly. 
Alike set free from sorrow and from pain, 
Their pleasures must be intellectual all : 
And charity, that bore them to the skies, 
When faith and hope were swallow T ed up in bliss, 
Must there direct and govern every breast. 

Tell me, ye dead ! is not your ceaseless work, 
T* adore and imitate the god, who made 
Your glorious habitations, and to search 



WOODLANDS. 3? 

With unabated zeal into the plans 
Of Wisdom infinite. O happy life, 
And happy spirits, whom no ills molest ! 
A few short years, and we shall all enjoy 
This high, this full beatitude with you. 

Brothers Is this no phrensy of the soul ? 

Oh, yes! dear sister, I shall meet with thee. 
The anguish, that my mother felt, and all 
My father's tears, that wet thy early grave, 
Shall then be quite forgotten in our joy. 
Methinks I see thee, in yon distant star, 
Astronomers the fair Arista call, 
W 7 ith all our humble kindred, bending down 
To sing an anthem to the king of kings, 
And, while imagination fills my ear 
With angels' harmony, my eyes weep joy. 
O ! may this dear delusion oft possess 
My soul — this little, visionary gleam return 
To dissipate the clouds of human ills, 
And gild my prospect into future bibs, 



38 WOODLANDS. 

With Summer now, in pride of all her reign, 
We seek the breathless wood, at heated noon; 
Or catch the opaque gales, that come to kiss 
The daisy, as it shuts its eye at eve, 
Or wakes to drink the crystal floods of day- 

Within the shadow of a southern hedge, 
The mower hangs his scythe upon a bough 
Of feath'ry larch. Exact, as is the sun 
To climb the dizzy summit of his course, 
His little daughter brings a clean repast, 
Prepared by her, who shares his toil and bliss. 
The prating beauty on his shoulders hangs ; 
Dangles the flexures of its father's hair, 
And wakes a trembling pleasure in his veins. 
Here is a lesson for the idle crowd, 
Whose limbs are lax and weary with the toil 
Of most laborious driv'ling ! Round his head 
He twines his tawny arms, and lays him down^ 
Possessed of all the luxury of rest. 



WOODLANDS- 39 

Light is his heart, not many are his cares ; 
His mind upon a level with his state ; 
And if he never felt the tlirob of him, 
Who wanders in the flowery paths of thought 
With science and with poesy, he feels 
No hooks of envy thrown into his soul ; 
No shock electric, from the hand of pride, 
To paralize the body of research. 

With all the elves of coolness and of heat, 
The blackbird slumbers in his holly bower. 
The tribe of rooks, o'er all the sun-burnt hills, 
Scattered, as numberless as ocean's sands, 
The embryo beetle from its mossy bed 
In silence dig. The lesser choir, that sang 
Sweet music to the blushes of the dawn, 
From field to field the butterfly pursue ; 
Hang on the full-grown thistle's downy plume ; 
Or on the with 'ring honors of the mead 
Sit in luxurious banquet. Not a sigh, 



40 WOODLANDS. 

Sobbed from the bosom of the weary winds, 
Disturbs the fervid dancing of the air, 
Or kisses, in its way, our burning cheeks. 

'Tis luxury now the deeply shaded aisles 
Of spruce to tread ; or, ona mossy bank, 
Beneath the cooling shadow of some elm, 
In careless indolence, our limbs to throw. 
Watching the gleams, that quiver through the boughs, 
We sit in vain vacuity of thought ; 
Till, unperceived, upon the eye-lids fall 
The dews of sleep, and visionary forms, 
In splendid troops, come rushing on the mind, 
Like genii, seraphim, or angels bless'd, 
All from whose bodies, borne on swelling clouds, 
Spears of fair gold in radiations flow. 
Adversely laid upon a stream of light, 
That heaves in swelling waves, perhaps a form, 
Preeminent in power, their chosen prince, 
Comes gently floating in the awful van ; 



WOODLANDS. 41 

And, while his refluent vesture, white as snow, 

Waves o'er his shoulders, and his youthful loins, 

Half-buried, lie upon their crimson bed, 

Thus pours his song on Fancy's dreaming ear : 

" In regions far remote from this green world, 

u O mortal man, I oftentimes have been 

" With sages and with heroes, once the boast 

iC And glory of your isle. They loved to tell, 

u Enraptured loved to tell, how freedom's shrine, 

" Still beauteous in their days, adorned the groves, 

" Where druids prayed, and where was heard the song 

" Of antient days, symphonious to the harp 

" Of bards, all o'er whose bosoms loosely flowed 

u The venerable marks of age. Their tales 

u Inflamed me with a strong desire to see 

" This land of valour ; but, alas ! I found 

u Its groves and hamlets laid in reeking heaps 

" Of ruin ; and tta bearded Roman sat 

" On Freedom's abdicated throne, and made 

f* A footstool of the weeping native's necL 

F 



42 WOODLANDS. 

" These very hills, that just before had waved 

" With oak and pine coeval with the flood, 

" A joyless prospect offered to the eye 

" Of trees with cinder'd arms, and ground still black 

" With fire. The murm'ring brooks, that irrigate 

" These peaceful vallies, then were taught to wind 

" Yon hill around, within whose evening shade, 

" Vardulian troops, in old Severus' reign, 

" Brandished their spears, and soldiers, fleshed in war, 

u On gloomy citadels were seen to walk. 

" Chagrined and disappointed, back I bore 

" The melancholy tidings. Since that time, 

" Full sixteen centuries now have rolled away, 

" And once again this variegated globe 

" I come to visit. Witness all ye host, 

" Attendant on my journies, and that love 

" With me the wonders of each world t' explore, 

" How glorious from the wreck of tyranny; 

u The idle age of ignorance and pride, 

u This billow beaten isle displays its fields. 



WOODLANDS. 43 

** As in the primal ages of the earth, 

" On Iibanon the mantling cedar rose; 

" Or various herbage, thick with blooming flowers, 

11 By pleasant Jordan : so these healthful woods ; 

" These sunny pastures and enclosures, dark 

" With earing corn, in youthful strength arise. 

u Long, O long ! may happiness delight 

u To bless the tenants of this lovely spot. 

" May heaven's sweet balm upon their heads be poured, 

u And angels, when they seek a better land, 

" To Abraham's bosom bear them all away." 

How strange are dreams ! with what amazing speedy 
The mind can travel from the birth of time, 
When all creation uttered songs of joy, 
Down to the lowering mornings, when the flood 
Shrieked with miserable groans of death ! 
But, slumb 'ring or awake, the powers of thought 
Run swifter, than the courier beams of day. 
E'en from this fancy a dream I raise my head, 

f 2 



44 WOODLANDS. 

And Autumn, touched with sickliness and woe, 

And Ceres and Pomona, all arrayed 

In vesture wan, and laden with the spoils 

Of summer, march before me, O'er the skies 

A wildness reigns ; and winds ungenial sweep 

The yellow hills. Profusely from her icy lips, 

The lengthening Night a respiration throws 

Of power, like subtle alkali, t' extract 

The juices of the vegetable race. 

And, clad in gaudy ruin, see ! the woods 

A melancholy grandeur now assume. 

The beech is crimson, and a bloody garb 

Invests the lime. Upon the poplar sits, 

As on a virgin's cheek, despoiled of health, 

A languid paleness ; and the ash appears 

Sick unto death. Each morning brings a change. 

The oak, so lately of a joyful green, 

Puts on a jaundic'd tinge ; and soon the rage 

Of all the furious demons of the north 



WOODLANDS. 45 

Shall roar upon his sturdy arms, and drh 
g 1( 



TO 

His tarnish'd honors into glens and caves. 



Thus is the transitory life of man. 
Youthful to-day, and blooming as the spring; 
To-morrow — ardent, as a summer's coon, 
And big with high conceits. Then grows his face 
Sallow, as autumn ; and his feeble knees 
Together knock, till winter pull him down. 

Winter ! thou season of domestic bliss, 
Terrible in tempests and enthroned in night, 
Thy very storms to me are full of joy. 
E'en the poor tenants of Laponia feel 
A pleasure in thy reign ; and, often as they hear 
Destruction posting on the angry winds, 
Yelling at ev'ry rock's opposing front, 
And threat'ning vengeance to their blast-worn hilte. 
They gaze around their rude, but peaceful homes, 
And bless their country for a shelt'ring roof, 



46 WOODLANDS. 

Wanderer as I am, without a spot 

In all this mighty world, where I could rest 

My weary limbs, and claim it as my own; 

Yet I have, sometimes, thought thy ev'ning hours 

Flew with an envious and uncommon speed. 

Oft, in my boyish years, long nights, I lent 

A greedy ear to prophecies of war; 

To tales of bloody clouds, and armies seen 

In furious conflict in the fields of air: 

Of local spirits, and the moonlight dance 

Of fairies. When my breast began to pant 

With love's sweet power, well pleas'd I saw the sur 

Descend into the frozen chambers of the west, 

And Darkness draw her curtains o'er the world. 

Then the mild languishing of Beauty's eye r 

Her minstrel hand or voice of melody, 

Sweet as the warbling of the bird of night y 

Entranced my soul. I never shall forget 

The moment, when the idol of my love 

Asked me the name of the resplendent star^ 



WOODLANDS. 47 

Which shines upon the borders of the robe, 
That o'er Bootes waves. I could not draw 
"The little spangle from its centered spot, 
And lay it on her hand. Oh ! how a tide 
Of nameless transport flew along my veins. 
The coward blood ran chilly to the heart ; 
And then, as if in madness, turned again 
Along its heated channels. Of my cheek 
Crimson and paleness, with alternate haste, 
Possession took ; my mingled sight and words 
On my lips fluttered; and my languid knees 
Together struck. Then, Winter, never gloom 
Thy hours with horrors, darker than I've seen, 
And I shall always love thee ; always find 
This glance of being worthy of my care. 

Oft, while the god of storms forgets to rage, 
And sky-enthroned Stillness waves her hand 
O'er all the world, with solitary step 
And folded arm, I tread some hedge's side, 



4S WCODLANDi. 

That bids the sunbeams linger in its shade, 
As steals their father through his shorten cl course, 
And no dim vapour tarnishes the blue, 
Illimitable canopy of heaven. 

Borne upon pillars of unequal strength, 
The stooping branches of the pine appear, 
Like the white mountains, that in air are seen, 
Portending thunder. All beneath is dark. 
Glowing amidst their arm'd and varnish'd leaves, 
That peep with healthy verdure from the snow, 
The clustered berries of the holly seem 
Like rubies, set in emeralds and hung 
Upon a cloak of ermine. Scattered o'er 
With crystals, lighter than the down of swans, 
And more pellucid, than the filmy scales 
Of purest talc, is every naked tree. 
The rill, that all the summer long had tuned 
Its mur'muring cadences with nicest care, 
Is hushed and still as midnight. On its banks 



WOODLANDS. 49 

Fantastic columns by their heads depend, 

Or, shooting downwards to the marbled stream, 

On pedestals, like alabaster, stand. 

The willows and the hoary blades of grass 

Form wreaths Corinthian o'er their vitreous brows : 

And rays of light, refracted from their sides, 

Dance in a thousand hues before the sun. 

Every casual stroke, that wounds the air, 

Reechoes. But no blackbird's joyous song; 

Xo warbling of the larks, or mellow lute 

Of all the woodland choir delights the ear. 

A sullen taciturnity the grove 

Possesses ; and in vain the feather'd boughs 

Of laurel and syringa from the lake 

Reflection woo ; and the recoiling mind 

Shudders at thought. But why, my soul, on death, 

From this uncheerful, and this frigid view, 

Turn with such trem'lous horror? Does the shroud, 

That hides the shrivel'd and unsightly face 

Of earth, remind thee of the robe, that soon 



50 WOODLANDS. 

This moving miracle of flesh may clasp 

In icy folds? or do yon branches, dry 

And sapless, as a rod of iron, bring 

To recollection tombs and charnel vaults, 

Scattered with bones ? I am a mortal man, 

And always see some emblem of my state — 

Some awful index pointing to the grave. 

But then, O White, the dismal view is cheered 

With the bright prospect, which the son of god 

Has opened to the eye of Faith. 'Tis there,, 

The panting soul her native land descries; 

And there, your much-lamented daughter waits 

To hail her aged father to the shores 

Of immortality and ceaseless spring. 

Till that shall be, the evening of your life, 
upon the bosom of your family, 
In quiet spend; and let me say — Enjoy 
The woods and fields, the high and social bliss 
Of your delightful spot. How short the time 



WOODLANDS. 51 

Since no domestic joy, connubial love, 
Or fond, parental tenderness was here; 
No song of birds to hail the break of day; 
No friendly intercourse 'twixt man and man ; 
No worshippers of God ! In spring, 'twas drear ; 
In summer, profitless; and, as a thorn 
Roils to and fro, vexed by contending winds, 
Or some huge porpoise, in a stormy night, 
Gambols by moonshine on his restless hills, 
The sportive ruler of the inverted year, 
Tumbled and rolled upon the northern blast. 
But, centered in a new creation now, 
Your mansion seems of loveliness and youth 
The fair abode. A tender mother sees, 
With fond affection sparkling in her eye, 
The children of your son, delighted, climb 
Their father's knees and wanton in his arms. 
From choristers innumerable rise 
Well-modulated anthems to the doors 
Of morning* Pity, too, whose visual orb 
G 2 



52 WOODLANDS. 

Floats on a tear, and Hospitality 

These groves frequent. Up to the throne of grace, 

On wings of charity, the fervent prayer 

Ts borne ; and, through the stillness of the night, 

The sounds of instrumental music creep 

Into the listening ear. Some misery or grief 

Is always poured into the cup of life ; 

But all the real pleasures, that adorn 

Or cheer mortality, conspire to smooth 

The path, that leads you to the unknown world* 

Truce with the world, and all its feeble aids 
T' arrive at happiness, which neither sits, 
On grandeur's plume, on title's starry breast, 
Or in the circle of a golden crown. 
The highest pleasures, that belong to earth, 
Frequent the noiseless dwellings, where our friends 
At distance from the busy world reside. 
Suspicion and formality ne'er cloud 
The brows of men, that in retirement live. 



AVOODLANDS. .53 

'Tis there from rocks, and trees, and running streams 

They gain instruction, while the soul matures 

For lands of better prospect; while she learns 

To subject sense unto the reasoning power; 

And feeds upon the never-cloying fruit, 

Plucked from the sacred tree, which Jesus came 

On earth to plant. They there can spend the day 

In lab'ring for the benefit of man ; 

And cheer their winter evenings with delights, 

Tti at find as ready passage to the heart, 

As the far louder revels of the town. 

I never mixed, indeed, with public life. 
And, therefore, may have formed a judgement false 
Of its enormities and crimes. But, sure, 
The voice, that bellows from our marts of trade, 
Too well designates, that not all we hear 
Of wantonness and robbery is false. 
Proof is a stubborn thing, and proofs enow 
Of foul dishonesty, and murdered health 



.34 WOODLANDS. 

Are daily from these nurseries of vice, 

Disgorged upon us. But their wounds are deep, 

And we must touch them with a brother's hand. 

Our fields bid welcome to th' unhappy sons 

And daughters of delusion. Let them come. 

In absence from their rioting and mirth, 

Some gleam from heaven across their path may shine f 

Some thought may smite the sinner's soft'ning hearty 

And bring him back to virtue and to God. 

'Tis said, the suburbs of a royal house 
Are dens of wrong ; the vilest spots on earth. 
And I do well believe it. He, who keeps 
Himself unfevered with the gen'ral plague. 
That into ev'ry closet of a court 
Its noxious breath insinuates, deserves 
The gratitude of man. For kings do live 
In air, so often visiting the lungs 
And sable hearts of sycophants, that smile 
On day's sweet eye, but daggers clutch at night, 



WOODLANDS. 55 

That they should have an amulet to charm 

Tli' infection off; and resolution firm 

As Britain's shores. Their ministers should be 

Guileless as lambs, decisive as the storm, 

That health and terror carries on its wing— 

And so was Pitt. Publicity, though like 

The angel Innocence, descending through 

Our cloudy atmosphere, would soon provoke 

Derision's horrid grinnings and the yell 

Of jealousy. But greedily to climb 

To power, and fawn before a prince's feet, 

Are neither marks of humbleness of mind, 

Nor proofs the patriot burns within our breasts;. 

Ambition, cherished with a courtier's zeal, 

Is but another name for all that's bad. 

There have, we know, been statesmen wise and good, 

Who from the darkness of their fellow peers 

Shone more resplendent: prelates there have been, 

Who penned the flock of christ with care; and sat, 

Watchful as serpents and as meek as doves, 



56 WOODLANDS. 

Debating on their country's good. But then 

The dizzy eminence, so many seek, 

Changes the visual power, and makes them see, 

Their fellow creatures, like a swarm of ants, 

Creeping below. 'Tis dang'rous to be great. 

Some solitary virtue may withstand 

The blandishments of fashionable vice; 

Some desart, insulated good may brave 

The thousand billows, that are still afloat 

Each genVous principle to overwhelm; 

But does not Grace, indignant from the scenes 

Of midnight revellings, her flight betake? 

When Pleasure wantons on her rose-strewn bed. 

And Vice, with soft lubricity of tongue, 

Woos for her sister, it is hard to turn, 

In virtuous anger, from their tempting smiles. 

But, surej t' avoid occasion is the part 

Of wisdom ; and to toil in rural life, 

Is better far, than in the city's brawl 

To lose our virtue and our quiet too. 



WOODLANDS. 57 

There must, 'tis true, be men to turn the wheels— 
The complicate machinery of state ; 
And give to commerce steadiness and strength. 
But let those labour at the kingdom's helm, 
Whose souls can resolutely look on wrong, 
And say : i I hate thee'. Let them toil in trade. 
In whom no thirst the youthful bosom burns 
To live in noble deeds through future times ; 
To whom no dower or patrimony comes 
From wealthy sires. Our merchants are a race 
Of glorious men; and, in good earnest, brave. 
Not narrow and penurious like the wretch, 
Whose miserable eyes and face, as hard, 
As an implaster'd wall, both want betrays, 
And poverty of soul : but they are great — ■ 
The wonder and the talk of all the world. 
Let commerce stagnate, and we soon should be 
Reduced to impotence. The dread of want 
Would make us fruitless ; thin our crowded streets : 
Our staples would be toys; our towns would shew 

H 



58 WOODLANDS. 

The tinsel semblance of their former wealth — 

A low magnificence, replete with crimes. 

And worst of all — where vigour braced an arm, 

Dark Pride and Discontent would treason breed ; 

Hoist up Rebellion's standard, and exclaim : 

1 Down with the tyrants, that oppress the poor.' 

Be kings dethroned, and from their courtier's breasts 

The spangles of nobility be torn, 

What would ensue? The same as if the earth, 

The sun, and all the planetary world, 

Confused, should wander through the fields of air. 

But while I praise retirement, I condemn 
The churlish pride, that like a winter's cloud 
O'erhangs the brow of solitude. The fall 
Of waters, and the craggy steep of hills, 
That live among the clouds ; the gentler voice 
Of streams, meand'ring, through a vale of flowers ; 
And Sabbath morning, cheerful with the sounds 
Of bells, that call us to the house of God, 



WOODLANDS. 59 

Had always charms for me. But, then, I love 
The social visit, and the hour of mirth ; 
The jocund song, t' exhilerate the soul ; 
The private dance, that braces sluggish limbs, 
And wakes vivacity in ev'ry eye. 

The proud misanthrope may abjure the bliss 
Of friendship, and an habitation make 
Where sea-birds join in chorus with the storm, 
And never human voice, except the cries 
Of drowning mariners, that vainly try 
To touch his pity, ever strike the air. 
The bigot, too, with discontented howl, 
May curse the times we live in, and contrast 
The manners of his fathers with the vice, 
That now provokes his zeal: but kindness still 
The human heart inhabits, and our arms 
Are strong and brawny, as were those that fought 
On Troy's embattled plains. Our London yet 
Is not a Babylon in crimes ; our forms 
h % 



60 WOODLANDS, 

More dwarfish, than the bodies laid 
In tombs Egyptian. Appetites the same, 
As rioted in Adam's or in Noah's breast, 
To evil or to good still urge us on. 

We often grumble at the world's neglect, 
And charge blind Fortune with a thousand ills, 
We bring upon ourselves. But all the wants 
Of life are few. 'Tis vanity and pride; 
A love of indolence and furious joy, 
That makes us poor. The life of man is short, 
And it is scarcely worth our while to wish 
Possessions, greater than our present means. 
But, if my wishes could obtain their end, 
For more than decent comfort for myself, 
And something for a friend, they ne'er should roam. 
I would not drive a vagrant from my door 
With harshness, and forget his griefs. My time 
Should be to social and domestic joys, 
To study, but the most of all, bestowed 



WOODLANDS. 6l 

To honor my profession. We can scarce 
Be happy in a meaner state ; and more 
Might only steel with tyranny our hands ; 
Pluck pity from our breasts, and in its place 
A self sufficiency and pride instill. 

Friendship alone to city and to shade 
Can give the glowing charms, our ardent search 
So greedily pursues. But, here, our choice 
Should be determined with a care as great, 
As is our love for virtue and ourselves. 
I hate the principles of him, who earns 
His bread by flattery, and whose supple neck 
And visage of complying muscles, find 
The courtier's smile or out-of-livery bow 
For all occasions. Ill the sprightly song, 
The harp, and sounds of gay festivity 
Accord with him, upon whose lowering brow 
Sit discontent and terrible revenge. 
Of import direful the revengeful laugh ; 



62 WOODLANDS. 

The contumelious jest and scowl of pride, 

Shall emblems be of charitable minds, 

When guileless virgins, to the list ning moon, 

All night the preludes of a battle sing. 

My friends should all be temperate, virtuous men, 

To altars and to thrones obedient ; 

With minds not squeezed into the sordid space 

Of vulgar thinking; not the filthy stews 

Of lewdness ; nor rebellion's gloomy dens. 

I love the man, who's affable and just, 

Who knows no sudden paroxysms of rage, 

Or cuts my feelings with a bitter jest. 

Could I with such, removed from fears of want, 

A dwelling find, then, dear Retirement, hail ! 

With less than this, the city be my home. 

Whatever scenery might adorn the spot, 

Untrod, or scarcely trod, by human feet, 

A desart it would seem. With solitude 

We soon should be, as ignorant and wild 

As thev who wander in Cafrerian woods. 



WOODLANDS, 63 

Tis social intercourse — a wish to please, 
That drives the savage from the breast of man, 
And love and pity naturalizes there. 
In towns the multitude, together jammed, 
And never-ceasing thirst for gold, create 
Extortion, labour, lust. Man civiliz'd 
The never-to-be-controul'd desire to live 
In independence urges to pusue 
The path to wealth. The idle, in their way, 
Are seized by lassitude and die in want ; 
The ardent perish ere their wish be full ; 
Misfortune baffles some ; the rest, at ease, 
While Youth yet lingers in the arms of Age, 
And there is lightning in the eye, their heads 
On Friendship's bosom lay. A dignity, 
Unblessed with leisure, I should call a curse ; 
But dignity 7 and leisure, spent in toil 
Congenial to our minds, are something like 
Beatitude itself: But then this toil 
Should always be to heighten and adorn 



64 WOODLANDS. 

Society ; the pilgrim's bleeding feet 

To dress with balm ; and, in our highest joy, 

Excess to manacle with iron chains. 

Adieu, dear White, by Melancholy's side, 
Through scenes, where Cheerfulness should lead the sons 
Of Fancy, musing have I trod. My verse 
Is mortal ; and oblivion thick shall cloud 
My memVy and my thoughts, when Spring shall dress 
Your woods and meadows in a robe of green. 



LONGOVICUM, 

A VISION. 

Scilicet et tempus veniet quum finlbus 111 is 
Agricola, incurvo terram molitus aratro, 
Exesa invenict scabra rubigine pila, 
Aut gravibus rastris galeas pulsabit inanes 
Grandiaque effossis mlrabitur ossa scpulchris. 

VlRG, 



LONGOVICUM* 



A VISION. 



When Judgement on his awful seat 
Enjoys, awhile, composure sweet, 
And Reason yields to Fancy's power 
The empire of the midnight hour, 
You know, my Friend, the dreaming mind 
Embodies things of strangest kind : 
i 2 

* Longovicum. The Roman ftation, whofe hiftory has 
been attempted in this little poem, is fituated near the village 
of Lanchefter, in the county of Durham. From the prefent 
extent of its ruins, and the variety of curious infcriptions, 
coins, and fculptures, that have been dug from them, it is cer- 
tain the place was once of considerable importance. But its 
hiftory is fo much involved in obfcurity, and fo many of the 
records of its antient ftrength and extention have perifhed 
with its lefs valuable remains, that its name is now difputed 
and its founder unknown. 



f)8 LONGOVICUM 

Through heavenly fields it sometimes walks, 
And oft with saints and angels talks ; 
it sees the fires, that hell illume, 
And flies through air on steady plume ; 
In water wheels with pain it rides, 
Or tumbles down a cat'ract's sides. 

Camden fuppofed it to be the Longovicum of the Notitis 
Imperii. His opinion was followed till Horfley endeavoured 
to prove, that Longovicum was the Roman name of Lancafter, 
and that the tenth iter, or rout of the Itinerary of Antonine, 
commenced at Lanchefter. When the fubjecl: has met with 
due confederation, Camden's conjecture, we doubt not, will be 
preferred. The feven ftations, preceding the ftations on the 
wall, have the following order in the Notitia. 

Lavatrs, Bowes. Maglove, Gretabridge. 

Verferse, Brugh. Magis, Pierfbridge. 

Braboniacum, Kirbythore. Longovicum, Lanchefter. 
Derventio, Ebchefter. 
Lavatrae, Verterae and Braboniacum retain the fame order, as 
in the fecond iter of Antoninus. In placing Maglove at Greta- 
bridge, and Magis at Pierfbridge, I have followed Horfley; 
and after thefe Longovicum and Derventio placed at Lanchef- 
ter and Ebphefter, feem in their natural order. Lanchefter, 
in the Bolden buke and Bp. Hatfield's furvey, is always written 
Langcheftre; and it is evident that the Saxon lang, and the 
Jatin longusf are the fame. Had the Saxons, contrary to their 



. A VISION. 69 

Who, in sweet vision, ne'er beheld 
Celestial forms in air upheld ? 
Who has not laid in Persian bowVs, 
Bv HanY tomb, on beds of flowers? 

ufual manner, preferred this name entire, they would have 
wrote it Langwicchefter. Ebchefter is upon the river Der- 
went, and on that account has a ftrong claim to the appellation 
Derventio. There indeed can be no doubt, but it was called 
Vindomora by the writer of the Itinerary; but in the long 
lapfe of time between the Antonines and Theodofius the 
younger, when the Notitia Imperii is fuppofed to have been 
written, the original propriety of this name might be forgotten,, 
and Derventio, the name of the river, on which the ftation 
was fituatcd, adopted as more appropriate. 

To controvert the opinion of fo able an antiquary as Horfley, 
may have the appearance of conceit; but with all due refpecSt 
to his learning, and his labour, I mud very much differ from. 
him, in difpoiing the tenth route of the Itinerary. Had he con- 
fidered,that the road fromLanchefter toMediolanum, or Drayton 
in Shropiliire, pointed out in the firft and fecond itinera, was 
much more direct, than that in his arrangement of the tenth 
iter, he certainly would never have fuggefted a way over two 
of the wildeft ranges of mountains in Britain, in preference to 
one pafling through fome of its richeft parts. From Lanchef- 
ter to Mediolanum, along Watling-Street, and by York, the 
traveller would fet out with his face towards the place of his 
deflination; by Old-Town, Whitley Caflle, &c, he would tra- 



70 LONGOVICUM 

Or, who, in dreams, has never trode 
Some hall of kings the rich abode, 
Where golden chandeliers displayed 
A roof with dazzling amber laid, 
And where Beauty, Love, and Pleasure 
Danced to tunes of Lydian measure ? 

One night, 'twas dark, the wind was loud r 
The moon obscured with darkest cloud; 

vel for feveral miles with his back to it. That Old-Town r 
where Horfley difpofes of the Galavia of this iter, was ever a 
Roman ftation, there has not yet been found either veftige or 
tradition; and, had a Roman way led between it and Lan- 
chefter, fome traces of it muft yet have been vifible, over the 
ftill-uncultivated moors it would have crofTed: but of fuch a 
thing there is no appearance. Whitley Caftle, we are fure, 
was garrifoned by the Romans, and evident remains of the 
Maidenway, leading from it to Magna or Caervoran are flili 
to be feen. 

If this iter, like the firft and fecond, had not its commence- 
ment within the wall, and paffed not along the Maidenway by 
Magna, I know of no arrangement, agreeing fo well with its 
diftances, and the ordef of three of the Notitia Rations as the 
following. 



A VISION. 

The brook was swoln and floods of rain 
Came pouring from the heavens amain. 

ITER X, 

A GLANOYENTA MEDIOLANO HI. p. CL* 



It. Ant. 


m. p. 


Not. Imp. 


Modern Name 


Glonoventa 




Glannibanta 


Old Carlifle. 


Galavia 


xviii 




Caer-mot. 


Alione 


xii 


Alione 


Kefwick. 


Galacum 


xix 




Amblelide. 


Bremetonacis 


xxvii 


Bremetenraeum 


Overborough. 


Coccio 


XX 




Ribchefter. 


Mancunio 


xvii 




Manchefter. 


Condate 


xviii 




near Northwich. 


Mediolano 


xviii 




near Drayton. 



The Lineojugla of the Anonymous writer of Ravenna, as well 
from the fimilarity of the initial fyllable, as from the place it 
occupies in his Corographia, feems to be the fame as Lan- 
chefler. 

Vindolande is the Vindolana of the Not. Imp. and allow- 
ed to agree with Little-Chefters, the ninth ftation on the wall. 

Lineojugla, I take to be Lanchefter, becaufe the way from 
Vindolande to Vinovia paffes by that ftation. 

Vinovia is Binchefter. 

Lavatris is Bowes. 

By the flighted infpedtion it is evident, that fome order is 
©bferved in the Corographia. From Valteris, or Brugh, it goes 
to Bereda, Plimpton- Walls ; to Lugavallum, Carlifle; to Magnis, 



72 LONGOVICUM 

Safe from the storm, in slumbers blest, 
I felt the luxury of rest; 

Caervoran; to Babaglanda, Burdosivald; to Vindolande, Little* 
Cbejiers; to Lineojugla, Lanchejier ; to Vinovia, Binchefer; to 
Lavatris, Bowes, which was the next ftation to Brugh. It then 
proceeds to Cataradtica, Eburacum, &c. 

Baxter, in his gloffary (vol. ii. p. 80.) thinks Lineojugla a 
corruption of Cindouigla, and derives it from kind ui uegil, 
that is, the neck of the principal water. How this derivation is 
applicable to Chefter-le-ftreet, which he fuppofed to be tho 
fite of this town, I know not; but as Lanchefter was feated on 
a kind of promontory, between the brooks Smallhope, and 
Erowney, Cindouigla is a name, that may be applied to it 
with no great impropriety. 

Could it be proved, that Longovicum, at the time when the 
Corographia was written, had been changed or corrupted into 
Lineojugla, both thefe appellations might be adopted, as 
antient names of Lanchefter ; fhould they be proved to be 
names of different places, it would be difficult to fay whether 
has the preference; and fhould they both be rejecSted^ as not 
belonging to Lanchefter, the Epiacum of Ptolomy, from being 
the moft northerly town of the Brigrantes, and from its im- 
mediate pofition before the Vinnovium and Caturracticonum 
of that author, may affert its claims. 

Curia and Brimenium (Anton. Iter. 1. Horf. Brit. Rom. p. 
243.) were towns of the Otadeni or Northumbrians. Farther 
fouth than thefe, are enumerated eight towns of the Brigrantes; 
and though fome of them are placed more than a degree weft 



A VISION. 

When lo ! transported from my bed, 
Methought I laid my weary head 

K 



of others, it is pretty certain, they were all fituated either up- 
on, or very near Watling-ftreet. In the following table the 
order of thefe towns, both as they ftand in Ptolomy and the 
firft iter of Antonine, is preferved. 



Pto. 


Long. 


Lat. 


Ant. 


Epiacum 


i8° 30' 


58° 


30' 




Vinnovium 


17 30 


53 


00 


Vinovia 


Caturractonium 


20 00 


58 


00 


Cataracfton 


Calatum 


19 00 


57 


30 




Ifurium 


ao co 


57 


40 


Ifurium 


Rigodunum 


18 00 


57 


30 




Olicana 


19 00 


57 


30 




Eboracum 


%o 00 


57 


%o 


Eburacum 



Ebchefter, both from its proximity to the Tyne, and the 
opinion of Camden, has a ftronger claim to Epiacum, than 
Lanchefter. But, if it be agreed, that Lanchefter, from its 
medial diftance between Vinovia and Corftopitium, and from 
its bold, military fituation, was likely to be built before Eb- 
chefter, we may fairly conjecture, that its name was Epiacum. 

Glanoventa was not here : Langovicum and Lineojugla I con- 
iider as the fame : and, as Ptolomy wrote his geography before 
the Romans had much deftroyed the names of the Britifh vil- 
lages, this place might be called Epiacum in Hadrian's time; 



74 LONGOVICUM 

Beneath a wall, # whose ruin'd brow 
Was shagged with many a thorny bough, 
On w r hich the whistling north-wind played 
Such shrill, wild notes, that night, afraid, 

but, in the reign of Theodofius the younger, have got the 
latin name Longovicum; and, in the barbarous age of the 
Corographia, be termed Lineojugla. 

I have been aflured by fome of the oldefl: inhabitants of 
Lanchefter,that, in the times of their fathers, their village was 
called Little-brough under Byland Abbey, This muft have 
originated in fome antient, monadic tenure. Byland (in latin, 
Bellelanda)\% in Yorkshire; and was once famous for amonafte- 
ry built and endowed by Roger Mowbray, an. 1143. (Gough's 
Camd. vol. iii. p. 84.) At prefent it is indifcriminately called 
the High Walls , the Broom~La<ws 9 and the Roman Station, 

* The fcene of this vifion is fuppofed to lie about the mid- 
dle of the fouth wall of the ftation. Within the laft century* 
and in the memory of many people yet alive, the whole fite of 
the ftation was overgrown with thorns, brambles, and hazels : 
But its irregular ruins have now for feveral years been levelled 
by the plough, and its area and the ground on the outfide of 
its walls been ufefully employed. It ftill however exhibits one 
of the mod confpicuous remains of a Roman camp, now to be 
feen in South Britain. That many valuable antiques fhould 
be deftroyed by the workmen, who prepared its fite for agri- 
cultural purpofes was to be expected; and, that its remains 



A VISION, 75 

Wept floods of tears, and o'er the sky, 
Bid clouds of thickest darkness fly : 
A dullness seized my shudd'ring frame, 
And horror, such as none can name, 
Stretched my painful eye-balls wide 
And ev'ry power of utt'rance tied. 
k 2 

have for many ages continued to be removed for building the 
church, the village, the farm houfe9, the fences of the neigh- 
bouring inclofures, and even to be buried in the highways, is 
more than probable. It has often, indeed, been viiited by 
very eminent antiquaries, efpecially by Dr. Hunter, and Mr 
Horfley, and feveral of its infcriptions and coins have met the 
eyes of the curious. But it is to be feared, many of thefe re- 
cords of its hiftory are irretrievably loft. The late proprietor 
of the farm at Hollingfide remembered the fpot when it was 
covered with fallen pillars, and while the towers of the wall 
were flill vifible. His dwelling houfe was in a great meafure 
built from its remains; and the mafons he employed, accord- 
ing to his own defcription, preferred the ftones, that were 
carved to thofe that had been ufed for ordinary purpofes, 
u The grave-Jlones, that ivere a covered wi* letters , made excellent 
through*" One ftone, in particular, he affirmed made a yard of 
wall; and had a beautiful female figure, cut on the fide, the 
mafons turned inwards. This figure is faid to be in the vtefo 
gable. 



76 LONGOVICUM* 

But soon a form, divinely fair, 
With flowing robe and braided hair, 
Came on a cloud, whose milky hue 
Was tinged with shades of clearest blue. 
Her feet were shod with crystal light, 
Her shoulders decked with wings of white, 

From the number of hearths, (fimilar to thofe of our fmith- 
eries) which were found in clearing away the ruins, the fame 
perfon fuppofed the Romans had been a tribe of fmiths. But 
the hearths the Romans ufed, as well for culinary purpofes, 
as for fmelting and forging metals, were all built after the 
fame manner. Caminus and focus feem to have been indif- 
criminately ufed for each other ; and both from the ruins of 
Herculaneum and Pompeii, and alfo from the filence of all 
antient authors, reflecting any thing analogous to our ehim- 
nies, that part of architecture was evidently unknown to the 
Romans. Their kitchens had a hole in the roof, through which 
the fmoke was emitted; but at great entertainments, when 
larger fires than ordinary were required, it made its way 
through the windows. Their other apartments were warmed 
by brafiers or fire-pans, placed upon tripods; or by conduct- 
ing heat from hypocaufta, along the walls, in concealed pipes. 

To have fuffered a mafs of ruins to cover a tract of rich 
ground, efpecially in times fuch as we have lately feen, would 
have been wrong. But to fuflFer them to be turned over with- 
out once confidering whether they were antient or modern; 



A VISION. 77 

Her neck was like a marble tower, 
Her eyes were filled with mildest power, - 
And, as her lily fingers ran 
Across her harp, she thus began. 

" The storm has brawled itself to rest 
And sinks to sleep on Quiet's breast. 

to deftroy a tombftone, an altar, or fome infcribed column, 
with the fame ftupid attention to labour, that a mafs of rock is 
broken in a quarry, if it be not culpable, it is fomething we 
contemplate with more abhorrence. Such want of tafte and 
indifcriminate deftruction the antiquary muft forever lament. 
But what has been, will be; and, till all men feei the fame 
reverence for things that are antient, the monuments of former 
ages will meet with their deflroyers. Grandeur, that has 
outlived the turbulence of invafion and rebellion, of ignorance 
and prejudice, muft expedt to be overturned. This we may 
lament. But the very fource of our forrow, is the fountain of 
our pleafure. Were all men zealous for the prefervation cf 
antiquities, things, that are old, would be no longer fcarce, and 
therefore incurious. Roman and papal ruins engage our at- 
tention, not becaufe we have any regard for tyranny or fuper. 
fh'tion, but becaufe remotenefs has buried their hiflory in un- 
certainty. Our avidity, in thefe matters, always increafes as 
perfect evidence is removed; and whatever eludes our invefti- 
gation, roufes our curiofity and heightens our veneration* 



78 LONGOVICUM 

Along the soft empyrean way, 

Paved with many a starry ray, 

The beauteous forms of Fancy's drearh 

Come sliding down each speary beam : 

Genii, — fays with feet of gold 

And robes that float in lightest fold, 

While I refided at Lanchefter, I not unfrequentfy met with 
fragments of altars, hand-mills, mortars and other curiofities, 
in the field walls, and the wails of the cottages and farm houfes; 
but was never fortunate enough to be gratified with a new in- 
fcription. Two of the votive altars, I found, had the figures of 
toads cut upon them, a third had a patera and urceolus on its 
fides, and a fourth, though neatly hewn, was without any em* 
blematic reprefentation. The altars, on which toads were cut, 
I fuppofe to have been ufed in incantations. We know the 
Romans made ufe of the toad in magic rites, (Hor. Epo. iv. 5. 
Juv. Sat. i. 7. iii. 45. vi. 658.) and have the authority of Mela 
(Lib. iii. cap. 2.) and Pliny, (Hift. Nat. xxx. I.) that the 
Britifh, efpecially their Druideffes, were greatly addicted to 
divination. Diodorus Siculus,alfo relates, that, in their anxiety 
to difcover future events, they infpedted the eutraiis of victims; 
(Lib. 5. cap. 35.) and it fhould feem doubtful whether any 
of thefe Sibyllas could fay with Juvenal, ranarum vifcera 
nunquam infpexi. 

The upper (tone of the querns or handmills, found at this 
ftation, are made of a very porous freeftone: the under flone 



a visiox. 79 

Leave yon moon, their blest abode, 
To wanton down their silver road. 
Some to ruin'd castles fly, 
Where floods of moonshine gild the high 
And crumbling towers, whose ivy hair 
Trembles in the passing air; 

is generally of petrofilicious lava, a fubftance not met with jn 
its native ftate in Britain, but ftill in ufe in our corn mills. 

The quern is a very antient machine. In the Jewifh law 
{Deut. xxiv. 6.) it was forbidden, that any perfon iliould take 
as a pledge M*n D^m " the nether or the upper millftone; for 
in fo doing he taketh away the life": a forcible conclufion, 
for to deprive a family of its mill, was to take away the means 
of preparing their grain for food. Bruce fpeaks of the hand- 
mill, as a part of the houfehold furniture of every family in 
■Abyfiinia. 

The following quotation from Virgil's Moretum, is defcrip- 
tive of the manner of grinding corn with the quern. A clown, 
at the call of hunger, is introduced as rifing before break of 
day, and 

standing at his mill, 
ivith arm all bare and body girt around 
zvitb skin of shaggy goat, the lamp he sets 
upon th* accustomed spot: then siveeps the flints, 
and cleans their ivooden lap. Each hand to tuork 
impatient flies. The left is ministers 



80 LONGOVICUM 

Some o'er mead, through wood, and lawn, 
Gambol till the grey-ey'd dawn; 
In sprightliest dances some are seen 
Tripping o'er the village green ; 
While some with nx'd and sober eye, 
Lonely musing, love to lie 

the right performs the labourer s arduous part, 
*Ihis drives in constant gyres the flying orb 9 
from whose swift stroke the bruised grain descends 
in copious stream; and with a sister s love 
the lefty in turn, the heavy toil resumes. 
Sometimes his labour with a rural song 
and homely voice he sweetens: sometimes calls 
m Cybele; tzfc. 

'The whirling labour done, the meal is thrown, 
into the cleansing sieve. The eddying busk 
skims on the surface, while the snowy flower 
falls in a drift of purest 'white below. 

The fragments of querns, found here, every way agree with 
the accounts Dr. Shaw and Neibhur give of the hand mills of 
Algiers and Arabia. In general, the upper done is a hemi- 
fphere, with a funnel perpendicularly through the centre to 
admit the grain, and a horizontal hole in its fide, in which to 
fix a handle. In one, the upper ftone was thin, had a kind of 



A VISION. SI 

Where antient oaks and ashes grey 
Their odd, fantastic roots display, 
Along the river's rocky side, 
And hear the murm 'ring waters glide. 

But deeper strike, thou awful lyre, 
While mystic times thy sounds require, 
When druid priests, in stole of white, 
And beards, like streams of sunny light, 

L 

bafon on its top for the reception of the corn, and its under 
furface concave. Its fellow had a correfpondmg convexity, 
and a brim (within which to admit the catillus) raifed about 
an inch, and interrupted with a lip, through which the meal 
defcended. 

The employment of grinding with the quern is, in all eaftern 
countries, efteemed laborious and fervile. It is generally per- 
formed about break of day and by female flaves. " In all the 
eaft, when one goes out in the morning one hears every where 
the noife of mills." (See Parkhurft's Heb. Lex. pgg. 681, 684. 
ocl. edit. Buxtorf 's pg. 734.) Mofes mentions the maid fer- 
vant behind the mill; St. Luke has a prophecy about two 
women grinding at a mill ; and Homer, before that beautiful 
prediction of the deduction of Penelope's fuitors, fays; 



82 LONGOVICUM 

In procession, grave and slow, • 

Sought the sacred mistletoe ; 

And here, embosomed round in shade, 

Of oldest oak and darkness made, 

Performed their mystic rites, and taught 

A lore perplexed with strangest thought. 

Hail, ye holy, scepter'd race, 
That once upon this favoured place,*" 

Ten female slaves the gifts of Ceres grind* 

^ ifc ^ ifc 

One maid, unequal to the task assigned, 

Still turned the toilsome mill ivitb anxious mind. 

Pope. 

But laborious as this employment may be, it feems to have 
always been accompanied with cheerfulnefs. Virgil's clown 
grinds and sings; Atheneus quotes a paffage from Ariftophanes, 
where the fongs of the grinders are mentioned; and Dr. Shaw 
notices this cuftom as common amongft the women of the 
Bedouin tribes. See Shaw's Travels, pg. 297. Oxford fol. 
edit. 1738. 

• This poem has, perhaps, more of fiction than of truth; 
but wherever any truth analogous to the fubjeft could be pro- 



A VISION. $3, 

In long and bright succession, saw 
Your altar, throne, and seat of law; 
.And trained the pictured native's mind 
To tempers of intrepid kind ; 
And deep imbued it with the rules 
Of antient Egypt's mystic schools ; 
How oft, at close and break of day, 
I saw you take your harps and play, 
On bended knees, with lifted eyes, 
A hymn, that warbled through the skies I 
How oft I saw, in shielded pride, 
Your warrior subjects boldly guide 
The lofty-breathing stead, whose car 
Sublimely rushed to deeds of war! 
L 2 



cured the author availed himfelf of it. To introduce the an- 
tient Britons, it was fuppofed would give both uniformity and 
variety to the whole; but there is no authority to afTert, that 
this was a druidical grove. For a hlftory of the Druids, fee 
Henry's KifL of Eng, vol?, x, and ii. 



84 LONGOVICUM 

But, while faint gleams of moonlight strayed 

Within your temple's darkening shade, 

I saw you lift the horrid knife 

To take a struggling virgin's life; 

I saw T you bare her breast, and bind 

Her lily hands with cords behind; 

And, when her feet were stained with gore, 

And eyes for mercy ceased t' implore, 

Her corpse on burning billets lay, 

While up her snowy soul, away 

To regions, sister angels bore, 

Where death and pain are felt no more. 

But Mercy's self, though lenient long, 

At length upraised th' avenging thong ; 

For while at evening hour you prayed, 

And on dread Taran's # altar laid 

* Taran fignifies thunder. This god is reprefented a& of a 
gloomy and inexorable nature. He was only to be appeafed 
by human facrifices; 



A VISION. 85 

Your supplicating hands, unseen 
A Roman cohort, on whose mien 

Terror sat, possessed with rage, 

Silent came, and, ere of age 

The feeble knee from earth could rise, 

Amazement rilled your closing eves. 

Then, ever faithful to 3 our hearts, 

With you deceased the druid arts ; 

And flames, that vengeful whirlwinds drove, 

Devoured your blood pointed grove. 

O mighty warrior, ever dear ! 
Who shall tell what love and fear— 
What deeds of glory and of fame 
Sounded in thy awful name : 
No Roman eagles here had spread 
Their wings — no Britons here had bled 

Et quibus immitis placatur fanguine diro 
Teutates, horrenfque feris altaribus Hefus 
Et Tar an is Scythica ncm mitior ara Dianae. 

LUC, L3B, 3* 



8G LONGOVICUM 

By spears of strangers, till thy arms 
Filled our forests with alarms. 
The blows of Caesar's* javelin shook 
Our island to its farthest nook ; 
Affrighted Monaf shrieked aloud, 
When fierce Paulinus all her crowd 
Of bards and seers, exulting view'd, 
Laid in garments rolled in blood ; 
And, through ev'ry British clan, 
Electric tenor wildly ran, 

* Csefar was the difcoverer, not the conqueror of Britain: 
poteft videri oftendifTe pofteris, non tradidiffe. After his death, 
to the reign of Claudius, it was excluded from the Roman em- 
pire. This Auguftus, and efpecially Tiberius, called reafons 
of ftate. Claudius, with the affiftance of his general Vefpafian, 
reduced the fouthern parts of it into a province. Tac. Agric.Vit. 

f This ifland was the grand feat of the druidical hierarchy, 
and was confidered by Paulinus as adminiftering continual fuc- 
ours to the rebellions of the Britons. He had fcarce conquered 
it, when he was called to quell an infurrection, headed by 
Voadicea, a woman of royal extraction and enterprifmg fpirit, 
The {laughter of her army was immenfe ; and to avoid falling 
into the hands of her enemy, fhe put an end to her exigence 
by poifon. Ibid, 



A VISION. 87 

When Horror raised his dismal yell, 
As the female's army fell. 
We heard, from Cambria s rocky shore, 
Thy trumpets on the mountains roar : 
As distant thunder lowly growls, 
And strengthens, as it nearer rolls, 
The clangour loud, and louder grew, 
Till in Brigantian* woods it threw 
Its vollies round, and virgins fair, 
And mothers with dishevel'd hair, 
As from the hunters fly the deer, 
Before thee fled with looks of fear. 
Where Cheviot's lofty summits lie 
On the green borders of the sky, 

* Cerealis made a flight attack upon the forefts of the 
Brigantes; but their northern parts were firft penetrated and 
conquered by Agricola. After fubduing South Wales, his 
march was directed northwards. Terror was always before 
him: behind him a conquered people, and a country covered 
with towns and caftles. Ibid. 



88 LONGOVICUM 

I saw the sportive sunbeams p]ay 
On fields of bronze at early day : 
And, when they sank in northern skies, 
And sleep o'ercame thy soldiers' eyes, 
Reflected bright, from burning hills 
Of oak and pine, a thousand rills 
Of crimson overflowed the road, 
Where have the bears their cold abode. 
'Twas then the Forth and rapid Clyde, 
Saw castles strong, and forts divide 
A vanquished people and a race, 
That dared to look in Danger's face ; 
And singly (stubborn as their soil) 
Of Rome defy the power and toil. 
Then, too, o'er ocean's conquer 'd tide, 
The furrowing keel was seen to ride ; 
And ships, displaying horrent arms, 
In Thule and Jura spread alarms. 
But, oh ! what horror gloomed the hour, 
When hot Revolt and restless Power 



A VISION. 89 

Led on the vengeance-breathing hordes 
Of Scotia, armed with mighty swords. 
Red was the mora, that saw thy car 
Out to the Grampians rush to war ; 
Dread was the roar of arms at noon, 
And loud the groans, that hailed the moon. 
Down Earne's proud stream was thickly rolled 
Helmets, swords, and bodies cold; 
And many a limb, and spear, and shield, 
Were scattered over Ardoch's field.* 
The few, that from the battle fled, 
By grief, despair, and fury led, 
Their wives and children slew, to save 
From chains, that load the toiling slave ; 
Their houses burned, and thought they saw 
In every hiding place a foe.f 

M 

* Paflim arma, et corpora, et laceri artus, et omenta humus. 
Tac. Agric. Vit. 

f Britanni palentes mixtoquc virorum mulierumque ploratu, 
trahere vulneratos, vocare integros, deferere domos, ac per iram 



90 LONGOVICUM 

Dear Warrior, to thy awful shade, 
While evening glooms these hills invade, 
Let me peaceful requiems sing, 
And strike this harp's melodious string. 
By thee this sacred spot # was crowned 
With massive walls and high-raised mound ; 

ultro incendere: eligere latebras et flatim relinquere: mifcere 
invicem confilia aliqua, dein fperare: aliquando frangi afpe&u 
pignorum fuorum, fspius concitari. fatifque conftabat fasvifTe 
quofdam in conjuges ac liberos, tamquam mifererentur. Tac. 
Agric. Vit. ed. Elziv, 1634. 

* According to Tacitus many camps were formed in the 
northern parts of Britain, by Agricola ; and that Lanchefter 
was one of them is not fo certain as probable* That general 
in his third campaign advanced as far as the Tweed, fecuring 
the country, as he went along, with ftrong fortifications; and 
the fame author particularly remarks, that it was an obferva- 
tion among men fkilled in military tactics, that he always dif- 
pofed of them in the propereft fituations. " No caflle, that 
Agricola built, was ever facked by the flrength of an enemy; 
or deferred by flight or capitulation." The ground to this 
camp rifes on every fide, but the weft; which is overlooked by 
a lofty hill, commanding a profpect from the Cheviots oa 
the north, to the Yorkfhire mountains on the fouth. From 
the ftation itfelf, the outline is formed in fome places at the 
diflance of a mile, at others of four. 



A VISION, 91 

Dark tow'rs besieging foes defied, 
And gloomy gate-ways frowned with pride; 
A temple rose on columns fair, 
And fragrant altars filled the air 
With sweet perfumes. In murmurs low,. 
The distant streams were taught to flow 
m 2 

Its form is a parallelogram; the length of the vallum or 
wall, from eaft to weft, being one hundred and eighty-three 
yards, and its breadth, from north to fouth, one hundred and 
forty three yards. Like all Roman camps, it had a gate in the 
middle of every fide, from which were ftreets, traverfing each 
other at right angles at the centre. Of the eaft and weft gate 
and the ftreet leading between them, there are yet evident 
traces. The corners of the wall were round and guarded with 
towers. The vallum itfelf was eight feet thick at the founda- 
tion, gradually decreafing by parallel fteps from the furface of 
the infide to four feet at the top. It was ftrengthened on the 
weft by a fofTe: the other fides had the advantage, in cafe of a 
fiege, of the Hoping of the hill. 

The Pretorium was fituated near the north gate;, and evi- 
dent veftiges of it are ftill remaining. It has indeed been 
ploughed over, and is now covered with luxuriant herbage; 
but this is owing to an accumulation of foil upon its ruins, not 
to a total erafure of its foundations. 

This place was one of thofe camps called in latin Cafra 



92 LONGOVICUM 

Around high forts ; and Culture's hand 
With rich luxuriance clothed the land. 

Where now the green turf heaves so high 
The ruins of a palace lie, 
Beneath whose roof Fve often seen 
British and Roman chiefs convene ; 



itathay where the troops v/cre quartered in peaceable times. 
At firft they were erected for the convenience and defence of 
the legions; but, as the inhabitants of the conquered countries 
became reconciled to their new matters, they deferted their 
villages and fought the fociety and protection of the foldiery. 

The furprifing fpeed, with which the Romans completed 
thefe erections, was always a matter of aftonifhment to the 
countries through which they led their armies. Jofephus fays, 
that their camps, which were never intended for more than 
ordinary purpofes, were built with as much regularity and 
strength; with as much attention to elegance and covenience, 
as if they had been intended for refidences for life. Their fol- 
diers were all artificers ; they employed their prifoners, and 
the peafants of the countries, they fubdued, in clearing the 
ground where their fortifications were to be erected, and in 
making roads, not only from one rampart to another, but from 
the quarries and forefls from which they drew their materials 
for building. Bella. Jud. Lib. 3. 



A VISION. 93 

Heard the sweet lyre to songs of love 
Fire all the soul, the passions move ; 
By turns bid each enraptur'd guest 
Be with grief or joy possessed. 
But now no more, alas ! I hear 
Joys thrilling voice salute my ear; 

The ftone for this place has been brought from a hill, about 
a mile eaft of Lanchefter. In the brook oppofite the church 
of Lanchefter, and through the churchyard, at more than three 
feet beneath the furface, I have feen a paved way, which might 
lead from the quarry to the camp. From the quantity of un- 
calcined iimeftone yet remaining here, it ftrengthens the pro- 
bability, that the mortar ufed in buildings of this kind under- 
went all its preparations at the place it was wanted, and that 
it was ufed in its cauftic flate. 

When a part of the north fide of the vallum was removed, 
at about thirty yards from the eaft corner, the workmen met 
with a cell^ formed by fix large, teffilated ftones, and filled with 
the bones of fome animal. From the appearance of the fkulls, 
the perfon, who gave me this information, fuppofed they were 
the bones of oxen, Might not thefe be the remains of fome 
facrifice of dedication, depofited here when the foundation of 
the camp was laid ? 

Watling-ftreet is as vifible, as on the day it was made, on 
the hill weftward of Hamftalls, and at Heugh. It may be 
traeed through a field belonging to Sir T. Clavering, called 



94 LONGOVICUM 

No more the social goblet flows 
Grief t' assuage, or banish woes ; 
But deadly silence, still and low, 
Loves around my haunts to go. 



the Porter's Dale, over the high grounds towards Ebchefterj 
and from thence to the Tyne. In fome places it is paved; in 
others formed by a high ridge of earth, covered with gravel; 
and in general it has a ditch on each fide. Thefe roads, on ac- 
count of their elevation, were called highways by the Saxons. 

On the edge of this road, about a mile north of the ftation, 
and near a farm-houfe called Low-wood fide, the foundations 
of a fmall, circular building were ploughed up about thirty 
years fince. In its area a great number of hollow-headed, cop- 
per nails; a clawed hammer of rude workmanfhip ; and feveral 
other antiques, were found buried in afhes,refembling thofe of 
a fmith's furnace. 

Befides Watling-ftreet, another road, called Wrecken-dyke, 
led from this ftation, by Maiden-law, Urpeth, Kibblefworth, 
and over Gat efhead- fell, to Weftoe, a village on the fouth banks 
of the Tyne. 

Though feveral deep wells have been found near the walls, 
and the garrifon here could be fupplied with fine water 
from two open fprings, at lefs than fifty paces from the eaft 
and fouth walls, the Romans were not to be contented 
■without fomething like a ftream, flowing through their camp. 
The traces of two aqueducts, each at leaft two miles long, are 
{landing proofs of their induftxy. Thefe have a circuitous di- 



A VISION. 95 

While Nerva o'er the empire swayed 
Revolt oft shook her flaming blade ; 
Grim Danger wandered o'er our isle, 
And every face forgot to smile : 
Dark troops of natives, fierce and fell, 
Poured from the woods with hideous yell ; 
The morning, then, was bright with spears, 
And evening wet with widows tears. 

rection on each fide of Umber-hill. That on the fouth has 
its fource in the Rippon-burn,andis confpicuousin Mr White's 
woods, and on the lower fide of the Wolfingham road, between 
Colpey-hill and Hollingfide. The north channel makes a 
north- weft angle in the fields above Newbiggen; and diverging 
towards Upper-houfes one way, and to Mr White's woods the 
other, terminates at a fpring, the ftream of which is now em- 
ployed in turning Kuitchley mill. This branch is eafier to 
trace, than the other, efpecially through the uncultivated 
ground, and at its head, where a mound of earth has been 
thrown up to obtain a level. Mr White has re-opened a part 
of it, and employs it in conveying water to his fifTi-ponds. The 
refervoir for both channels was in the field, oppofite :he fouth- 
wed corner of the vallum. 



9S LONGOVICUM 

With Trajan peace our country blest, 
And science lived in every breast. 
Blind Maeon's song, and Maro's fire, 
Would oft th' untutor'd chiefs inspire, 
While the warm lays of Flaccus taught 
The luxury of am'rous thought. 

Then Hadrian, wand'ring, brave, and bold, 
Patient alike in heat and cold, 
From Egypt's thirsty sands, to where 
The Grampians tower in chilly air, 
Bare-headed roamed, and blessed and cheered 
A people, who him loved and feared. 

In holy Antoninus' reign, 

The still-rebelling Picts again, 

By Urbicus, in slaughter vast, 

O'er Scotia's hills in heaps were cast.^ 

* Per legatos fuos plurima bella gefiit. Nam et Britannos 
per Loliium Urbicum legatum vicit, alio muro cefpititio fub- 
motis barbaris dudlo; &c. Hift. Auguft. de Ant. Pio. 



A VISION. 

To where old ocean's billows roar 
On Caledonia's farthest shore, 
Severus # marched with toil and rage 
Rebellion's furious heat t' asswage ; 

N 



97 



* Though no politive evidence has yet appeared to juftify 
the fuppofition, that the three altars, on which are the follow- 
ing infcriptions, were made under the reign of either Severus 
or Caracalla, yet the evidence in favor of fuch a fuppofitionr 
is ilrong. 



TFLmiAN/S 
V-S-LL • M 







imn\nm>vp 




Yttw c&TZPicis Titos <X>A#s?£ Tirixvog XtXix^o;, Brit. Rom. 
P 293. 

JEsculabio Titus Flavius Titianus tribunus n)otum solvit Ubertissbne 
merito. Ibid. 

The (tone bearing thefe infcriptions was difcovered by 
Horfley. Contrary to the general mode, it is infcribed both 
on the back and front. A Roman author* fpeaking of Britain, 



98 LONGOV1CUM 

From sea to sea, yon hills along, 
Reared a wall with ramparts strong ; 

fays it was clara Grsecis et noftris monumentis; but this and 
" the famous altar at Corbridge," dedicated to Hercules, are 
" the only inftances of the Greek character ufed in fuch in- 
fcriptions in Britain.'* Ibid. 



Jcvi optimo maximo vexillatio eohortis 
Vardulorum civium Rcmanorum equitum mill, 
it* f. I. m. 

This altar alfo was found by Horfley, 
" in the corner of a clofe belonging to 
I Nicholas Greenwell.'" Like the other, it 
CR'E;$i^3 is too much mutilated to find out its true 

VSLM ^ reading; but enough is left to fhew that 
it was dedicated to Jupiter by a cohort 
of Vardulian cavalry. Rom. Brit. p. 
294. Both thefe altars were in the pof- 
fefEon of the late fir Afliton Lever. 



NVM. AVG. ET 

GEN. COH. II. Numeni Augujii et genio eohortis fecurf 

VARDVLLORVM. j a y ar dulloru7n civium Romanorum equi~ 

C.R.EQ. *. SVB.AN .„■"-_ . ■ AJ 

TISTIO ADVEN tum J Antijtio Aavento, Legato 

TO.LEG.AVG. PRRR. Augujli propratore, F. Titianus tribunus 
F.TITIAN VS. TRIB 

# # # R 




OM 
lliMATiCOHl 

VARDVLOR I 




dat dedicatque rite. 



Dr. Hunter firft noticed this altar in a letter to Roger Gale, 
ct dated 17 May, 1735." It was found " within the antient 



A VISION, 99 

And left to roam in space more wide 
A race that Roman arms defied, 

"Twas then that Fingal, Morven's king, 
In Odin's halls heard Ossian sing, 

N 2 



fortification, having its bafe broken off, and the initial letters 
of the two laft Jines." It is yet at Greencroft, and its infcrip- 
tion is very legible. 

All thefe altars appear to be of the fame date, from the 
mention of either the tribune Titianus or the Vardulians. This 
Titianus might poflibly be the fame as one, that was Procura- 
tor of Alexandria, and whom Caracalla put to death with one 
of his favorites called Theocritus. O Gzokpitos <?v%iovq ha rz 
rxvra Kctt ct^Xcas ct7rix,Titvs> pi$o>v kxl Tmxvo; <l>Xct£io$ 
i$ovivQq* i7riT£67rivav y«g gv t*j AAs|#v5g<#, &C. Dion. Epit # 
Ziphil. p. 336. ed. R. Steph. an 1551. 

The Varduli were a people of Spain, and are mentioned by 
Mila and Pliny. L. iii c. 3. 1. v. c. 29. Their names are alfo 
found in three inferiptions, belonging to Riechefter in North- 
umberland, one of which is dedicated to M. AVRELIVS 
SEVERVS ANTON1NVS; and another to the God of the 
Sun for the health and the fafety of the emperor M. 
AVRELIVS ANTONIN VS. They appear to have been a part 
of the twentieth legion, which, from the following infeription, 



JOO LONGOVICUM 

How Carun's stream with blood was died, 
And, o'er the fields of all his pride, 
From valour's host, the bloody van, 
How 7 Caracul affrighted ran. 

as well as from thofe belonging to Gordian's time, was either 
wholly or in part occafionally quartered here. 




The boar on the above fculpture was meant to reprefcm. ihe 
Caledonians. This animal was a formidable enemy in the 
woods of Britain. There is at Stanhope an altar dedicated to 
the Sylvan God, on account of a boar eximiae forma? captum; 
and as the taker of it fays: quern multi anteceffores ejus 
prsedari non potuerunt. Gough's Camd. vol. iii. pgg. Ji6, 246. 
and pi. xx. fig. 5. 

The twentieth legion came into Britain with Claudius, and 
its vexillation was a part of the army of Paulinus,when he con- 
quered Boadicea. Its head quarters were generally at Diva or 
"Weflchefter. It is fuppofed to have been recalled about the 
beginning of the fifth century, as the Notitia Imperii has not 
mentioned it, Henry's Hift* vol. ii. p. 261. 



A VISION. 101 

But thou, mild youth, what strains shall tell, 
How, all at once, with sudden swell, 
A tide of splendour, from thy throne, 
Burst away and round us shone? 
Then each tower, by time grown hoary,* 
Beamed again with brighter glory. 

* If it cannot be afTerted, that Agricola was the founder of 
this place, we are fure it rofe with an acceffion of fplendour 
under the aufpices of the unfortunate Gordian. 

The principal buildings, within the walls, were the arma- 
mentaria et principia, the rebuilding of which is recorded on 
a (lone, bearing the following infcription,and now in the Dean 
and Chapter's library in Durham.. 

IMP. OflSSAR. M. ANTONIVS 

GORDIANVS, P. F. AVG. 

PRINCIPIA- ET. ARMAMEN 

TARIA. CONLAPSA. RESTITV 

IT. PER. MECIL1VM. FVSCVM. LEG. 

AVG. PRPR. CVRANTE. M. AVR. 

QVIRINO. PR. COH. i. L. GOR. 
When Gordian zvas emperor , and Jl£, Fufcus lieutenant governor 
of Britain, thefe barracks and magazines, ivbich had fallen into decay, 
ivere repaired by A. Quirinus, prefect of the frfi cohort of the 
Gordian legion. 

The infantry, which compofed a Roman legion were of four 
kinds, called velites, haftali, principes et triarii. The princi- 



102 LONGOVICUM 

Without the walls, on pillars tall, 
Majestic rose a judgment hall ; 
And crystal rills were seen to glide 
Beneath a bath of arched pride. 

pia included the repofitory of the eagles, and the quarters of 
the principes. The armamentaria were military depots, or 
magazines for arms. 

Dr. Hunter and Mr Gale firft publifhed their remarks on 
this, and the following infcription, in the philofophical tranf* 
actions for a. d. 17 17. 

IMP. CjES. M. ANT. GORDIA 

NUS. P. F. AUG. BALNEUM. CUM. 

BASILICA. E. SOLO. INSTRUXIT. 

PER EGN. LUCILIANUM. LEG. AUG. 

PRPR. CURANTE. M AUR. 

QU1RINO. PR. COH. I. L. GOR. 
*The emperor Gordian, by his legate Egnatius Luc'iUanus , and under 
the infpeflion of A. Sguirinus, prefeft of the frjl cohort of the Gor-> 
dian legion , built this bath and bafdic. 

The bafilicae were firft courts of juftice and places where 
merchants met to tranfadl bufinefs: they were under one 
roof, the juftice rooms and the exchanges of the prefent day 
When chriftianity received the protection of the emperors they 
were converted into churches. 

That the bath flood adjoining the bafilic is evident, both 
from its remains being difcovered where the infcription wa6 
found, and from their being mentioned on one ftone. They 



A VISION. 103 

The soldier's toil was then his sport, 
And towers of ornament each fort ; 
Secure the shepherd penned his fold, 
And autumn waved with fields of gold ; 
High soared the lark with sprightly lay 
To wake the blushing hours of day; 
The air no sounds of rudeness smote 
To stop the thrush'es evening note; 

were fituated near the fouth eaft corner of the vallum. Every 
trace of the bath is now obliterated, except certain large maffes 
of its flooring, built up in the neighbouring fences. The floor 
was fupportedby pillars, diftant from each other about a yard, 
and refting on a fubftance, apparently metallic. The angles of 
four fquare ftones met upon each of thefe pillars, and had their 
upper furfcce plaftered to the depth of four inches, with a 
mixture of lime, limeftone, pebbles, and fragments of brick. 
This compofition is extremely hard; has a rocky appearance, 
not unfimilar to granite ; and, in fome parts, feems to have 
undergone a kind of vit refaction. Beneath thefe pillars, a fe- 
cond range were found refting on ftifF clay, and with the fpace 
between them filled up with rubbifh, 

The only room of this building, whofe dimensions could be 
afcertained, was about four yards fquare. Its walls were plaf- 
tered with a fubftance limilar to its flooring, and the fellow* 
in£ altar was found at its eafl end. 



104 LONGOVICUM 

And sad and melancholy doves 
Then unmolested told their loves. 




Fortune Augujli facrum Publius J&lius 
Attkus prafefiu: votum fol'vit lihentijfime 
merit o. Hutch. Durh. *vol. it. pg* 360. 

An altar dedicated to fortune was al- 
io found in one of the rooms of a bath 
at Netherby: and an infcription, dif- 
covered at that place, in i734,mentions 
the erection of a " bafilicam equeflrem 
exercitatoriam, ,, a kind of riding-fchool, 
in the reign of Alexander Severus 
about a. d. 227. This and the three 
preceding monuments are in the Dean 
and Chapter's library, in Durham. 



Csefari noftro imperatori Marco Anto- 



C. N, 

1 GORDIANO T " nI ° Gordian °> P Io > felid ' aU S ufto ; 
PlcT FEL1CI This infcription is on a mile-pillar now 

AVG. u f ec j as a gate-poft, on the north fide of the 

lane, leading from the village of Lanchefter to the flation. 
A pillar fimilarly infcribed was alfo found at Naworth in Cum- 
berland, and is now in the mufeum at Rookeby Park, near 
Bernard-Caftle. 

Eefides the antiquities hitherto enumerated, the ruins of this 
place have afforded many other?; but, as it maybe thought 
irrelavent in a work of this nature to enter into a detail of 



A VISION. 105 

Oh ! days of peace, without a foe, 
Remembered but to swell my woe, 
How shall I turn to backward times 
Of slothful ease and foulest crimes, 

o 



niceties, I fhall content myfelf with mentioning fuch as cannot 
well be patted over, or have not yet been noticed, 

GENIO. PRAETORI. Genio Pratori Claudius Epabhro- 

CL. EPAPHRODITVS. ... r/ ,. . .. , # . r 

-.. A , TTNT . XTT .„ aitus Llauaianus tribunut cobortis /<?- 
CLAVDIANVS. J 

TRIBVNVS. COH. eunda Lingonum votum libens pofuit 

II. LING. V.L. P.M. merit0% 

The ftone, from which this infcription was taken, has the 

appearance of once having been the bafe of a pillar, and is now in 

the Dean and Chap. Lib. in Durham. The Lingones were a 

people inhabiting the country about Langres in Champaigne. 

j)EO Deo Siivano Marcus Didius provincia- 

SILVANO lis beneficiarius confulis v. f. 11. m. 

'pROvlNaALlI 5 This infc "P tion is from a P lain > mural 
BF. COS. altar, given by captain Geo. Ornfby to 

V.S. LL. M. W . t. Greenwell, Efq. of the Ford. 
Similar dedications to the filvan god have frequently been met 
with in this country. Vide Reinesii Syntag. pgg. 138, 141, 
148. Gough's Camd. vol. iii. pgg. I17, 159. 

D • • • This is from an altar now in a mufeum at 

VICTORIE 

yOT '"* Kefwick. The infcription is partly obliterated, 

S V L M and the true reading not eafilv difcoverable. 



106 LONGOVICUM 

When Roman youths, of war afraid, 
On Pleasure's lap inglorious laid ! 
And Treason's horrid steel was red 
With royal blood at midnight shed ! 

In addition to the fculptures without infcriptions, noticed by 
Horfley and Hutchinfon, may be placed the figure of a prieft 
pouring a libation upon an altar preparatory to a facrifice. 
He has a torch in his left hand, in his right a bottle, and on 
each fide of the altar is reprefented the rude figure of a lamb. 
This is in the garden of Mary Brown, in Lanchefter. 

Though many coins have been found here, only a very few 
of them have been taken notice of, or found their way into the 
cabinets of the curious. The account of the firfl: of the follow- 
ing coins is taken from the Newcaftle Chronicle, for Dec. 29, 
1787, and of the five others from the fame paper, under the 
date April 19, 1788. Nos. 7, 8, 9 and 10, were communi- 
cated to me by a friend; Nos. 11, 12, 13 and 14, are in the 
poflefiion of W. T. Greenwell, Efq.; and Nos. 15 and 16, of 
captain Geo. Ornfby. 

1. Silver. Obv. IMP. ANTONINVS PIVS AVG. a laure- 
ated head. Rev. LIBERALITAS AVG. III. A female 
figure; in her left hand a cornucopia, in her right a tefiTera, 
and a ftar before her head. Eliagabalus. 

2. Silver. Obv. IMP, C. M. AVR. ALEXAND. AVG. a 
laureated head. Rev. PIETAS AVG. and piety before an 
altar. 



A VISION. 107 

As when a storm, in northern skies, 
By slow degrees, is seen to rise, 
And, then, by sudden whirlwinds borne, 
Devastive, sweeps o'er fields of com ; 
o 2 

3. Silver. Obv. IVLIA MAES. AVG. a female head. ReV« 
SAECVLI FELIC1TAS. A flolated figure at an altar, in her 
right hand a patera, in her left an hafta et caduceum, and near 
her head the flar of deification. This lady was the wife of 
Julius Avitus and the grandmother of Eliagabalus. For an 
account of her, fee the Hift. of the Rom. EmprefTes, by De 
Serviez vol 11. 340. iii. 18. 

4. Silver. Obv. IMP. ANT0N1NVS AVG. a laureated 
head. Rev. VICTORIA AVG. a gradiant figure with laurel 
in its right hand, and a palm in its left. 

5. Silver. Obv. SALL. BARBIA. ORBIANA AVG. a ra- 
diated female head. Rev. CONCORDIA AVG. the figure 
fitting, in its right hand a patera, in its left a cornucopia and a 
liar. All that is known of this emprefs is from medals. Her 
firft name was Saluftia, and fhe was the third wife of Alexan- 
der Severus. See De Serv. Kift. of the Rom. EmprefTes, vol. 
iii. p. 69. 

6. Copper. Obv. IMP. C. VICTORINVS. P. F. AVG. a 
radiated head. Rev. PIETAS. The figure nearly like No. 3. 

7. Obv. CAES. NER. TRAIAN. OPTIMO. AVG. GER. a 
laureated head. Rev. P. M.T. P. CVI. P. P. S. P. Q^R. The 
iigure holds in its right hand a balance, in its left a palm, 



108 LONGOVICUM 

Ken so the savage tribes, that long, 
From north to south, in countless throng, 
Had o'er the empire's farthest bounds 
Y\ aved their swords and laughed at wounds, 

8. Obv. P. SEPT. GETA. PIVS. AVG. * V a laurcated 
head. Rev. * * * *. A ftolated figure, with a bough in its 
right hand, in its left a fpear, and behind it the fpoils cf vic- 
tory. 

9. Obv. IMP. ANTONINVS PIVS AVG. a laureated bead. 
Rev. LIBERTAS AVG. Eliagabalua. 

10. Copper. Obv. IMP. CONSTANTINVS AVG. a fine 
laureated head. Rev. SOLI INVICTO COMITl. A beauti- 
ful figure of Apollo, holding in his right hand a lamp, in his 
left a globe, and with five rays around his head. Under his 
feet is TPR, under his right hand T, and under his left F. 

11. Silver. Obv. ANTONINVS. PIVS. AVG. a laureated 
head and no beard. Rev. FEL1CITAS AVGG. A Aolated 
figure, in its right hand a caduceum, in its left a cornucopia. 
Caracalla. 

12. Silver. Obv. Legend obliterated, a laureated head. 
Rev. PROVID. DEOR. COS. I. The figure of Providence, 
with a fun before it. Eliagabalus. 

13. Copper. Obv. IMP. N.D.MAGNENTIVS AVG. a 
plain head. Rev. FELICITAS REIPVBLICE. A male figure, 
holding in its right hand a victory, in its left a military eagle. 
Beneath its feet is TRP and under its left hand A. Several 
coins of this ufurper were found in the old piers of Newcaftle 



A VISION. 109 

Burst from their old and tangled woods, 
With force, like Hecla's burning floods, 
And, all-resistless, bore away 
Cities and armies in the fray, 

bridge, when it was repaired in 1779. He flouriflied about a= d. 
351, After ill fuccefs in battle ad Lugdunum gladio fibi latus 
aperuit. Pomp. Last, 

14 Copper. Obv. * * * CLAVDIANVS * \ a radiated 
head. Rev. * TV •> *. a female helmeted; in her right hand 
a laurel, in her left a fpear. 

15. Copper. Obv. IMP. C. POSTVMVS. P. F. AVG. a 
radiated head. Rev. !A. O. IVST. M. AVG. The figure 
holds in its right hand a balance, in its left a cornucopia. 

16. Copper. Obv. * POSTVM *, a radiated head. Rev. 
* * * a ftag with its head reverted. 

With thefe fhould be mentioned a large bead of jet and a 

copper fibula, in the poffefiion of Mr Greenwell; the cover of 

the communion cup at Lanchefler, which is of filver, and was 

found anno, 15 71; and a gold plate in the Dean and Chapter'6 

library in Durham, bearing; this infeription. 

MAR'T'I 
" The cover of the communion cup at Whig- AVG 

more, c. of Hereford, exacTiy refembles this D AVFIDI D 

(at Lanchefler) and has on it the date. VSAVFI 

1571. Gough s Camd. vol. 3. pg. izz> 



110 LONGOVICUM 

But never let my tale unfold 
What history's page has darkly told ;+ 
What civic feuds our isle disgraced, 
And ev'ry work of art defaced ; 

f That the hiflory of this place, and of the greateft part of 
the times, through which it exifted,is not more circumftantially 
recorded perhaps ought not to be lamented. The annals of 
barbarous nations and barbarous ages are generally the recital 
of a feries of cruelties. They have little variety, and that 
little is only in the exhibition of different degrees of ferocity. 

From the Notitia, and feveral antient infcriptions it ap- 
pears, that Britifh troops were fcattered over the face of the 
whole Roman empire. Continually weakened by confcriptions 
raifed among the flower of its inhabitants; and finally deferted 
by the Romans, Britain mull have fallen an eafy prey to the 
flill fierce and independent Caledonians, had not immediate 
fuccour been obtained from the Saxons, a people bred up to 
war, and ready to feize every opportunity of carrying on their 
profeflion; efpecially in a country, more genial and fertile than 
their own. After fupprefling the inroads of the northern bar- 
barians, and finding the country and climate better than that 
they had left, they feized the reins of power and foon reduc- 
ed England into feven (or, as fome argue, into eight) petty 
kingdoms. The inhabitants were obliged to take fhelter a- 
mongft the mountains of Wales, where, till the prefent time, 
they have continued, though a conquered, a feparate people. 

"With refpedt to his Saxon auxiliaries, Vortigern was guilty 



A VISION* 111 

How Odin's altar reeked with gore 
And festive Yuul delighted Thor ; 
How Rapine, still engaged in broil, 
Awoke th' adventrous sons of Spoil : 

of remarkable impolicy. He put them in pofleffion of the 
garrifons on Severus'es wall, and the coafts of Kent, the ftrong- 
eft holds of his nation. Of this imprudence they took the ad- 
vantage, and wrefted his fceptre from his hand. He himfelf 
was an ufurper: and the faith of nations, at that time, was no 
way remarkable for liability. The only prefervative of peace 
was equability of power; and, even in that (late, kingdoms 
looked upon each other with jealoufy. They confidered fu- 
periority as a kind of natural right for dominion; and fhewed 
little of either mercy or ceremony in plundering their neigh- 
bours. 

From the Saxons originated our language, our laws, and 
many of our mod antient cuftoms. Thefe in fucceeding times 
were varioufly modified, efpecially at the time of the Norman 
conqueft; but, to this day, our familiar converfation is ftill a 
dialect of the antient Teutonic, of which fo much is ftill pre- 
ferred, that the provincial tongue of moft of the northern 
counties bears a ftrong affinity to the languages of Holland, 
Germany, and Sweden, languages fo originally and entirely 
different from the Welch, that their roots have feldom any^ 
Smilarity. Dr. Johnfon obferves, that " it has been conjectur- 
ed, that, when the Saxons feized this country, they fuffered 
th-e Britons to live among them in a ftate of vaffalage, employ- 



112 LONGOVICUM 

From Cimbrian woods, profusely poured, 
Came many a rude, invading horde ; 
The Saxon skilled in elfin lore ; 
And Dane with beard bestained with gore. 



5^ 



ed in the culture of the ground, and other laborious and igno- 
ble fervices. But it is fcarcely poulble, that a nation, however 
deprefTed, fliould have been mixed with another, in confider- 
able numbers, without fome communication of their tongue ; 
and therefore, it may, with great reafon, be imagined, that 
thofe, who were not fheltered by the mountains, perifhed by 
the fword." 

This too may ferve to fhew why fo little of Roman refine- 
ment defcended to pofterity in Britain; and why fo many of 
the labours of that people were overturned. Thofe, who had 
obtained their manners, were driven to barren and inhofpit- 
able mountains, to which, from necefiity, their difpofitions 
foon became reconciled, and their habits aflimilated. 

The new pofTefibrs of the country, efteeming war as honour- 
able, and peace only fit for the dalliance of effeminacy, were 
always, by their civil commotions, at a great diftance from 
civilization, and flrangers to arts and commerce. They had 
neither wealth to procure luxury, nor leifure to ftudy refine- 
ment. Their roads from neglect became bad or impaflable; 
and only fuch places were inhabited, as were fuitable to pre- 
fent convenience. As long as Watling-ftreet continued to be 
frequented, the ftation of Lanchefter might preferve fome of 
its importance. Edward the firft, in his purfuit of Robert 



A VISION. 113 

Oh! then, around this lov'd abode, 
Troops of banditti proudly rode ; 
And oft at midnight, while a lamp, 
Through the buildings, dark and damp, 
Shed a trembling, gleaming ray, 
The whisker'd sons of Plunder, gay, 
Caroused in barb'rous mirth, and sang 
Till all the falling ruins rang. 

At last, when weeds and briers had made 
With oaks, a dark and tangled shade ; 
When daws, still noisy, hovered round 
The tow T ers with clustering ivy crowned; 

p 

Bruce undoubtedly led his army along it to the Tyne; (FroifTart 
vol. I. xviii.) and the army of David Bruce after the battle of 
Nevil crofs, availed themfelves of it in their retreat. When 
Durham became the refidence of the relicks of St. Cuthbert, 
and Newcaflle began to fwarm with monks, this road was neg- 
lected, and commercial interefls have fince prevented its being 
repaired. 



114 LONGOVICUM 

In the first Edward's glorious reign 
Arose from hence yon sacred fane;* 
And hamlet brown, that sits in pride 
The valley's queen, and smiling bride. 

Surviving still the wreck of age, 
Barbaric hands, and civic rage, 

* The prefent church of Lanchefter was made prebendal an. 
1283, and rebuilt upon the occafion. When it was firfl: erected, 
I have feen no account. The Saxon crofTes, built up in the 




wails of the tower, prove the exigence of a church in the place 
previous to the year abovementioned; and, that the whole of 
the prefent building has been erected from the ruins of the 
ftation, there cannot be the lead doubt. 

It is more than thirteen centuries fince the Romans left the 
ifland, and more than five fince the ruins of this place were 
partly removed; of its intermediate (late nothing can be 



A VISION. 115 

Some marks of antient glory live, 
And what remains can pleasure give. 
These hoary walls to me are dear, 
These fruitful fields I still revere. 
I feel a pensive joy when spring 
And silent-footed evening fling 
p 2 

known. From the red allies of the bafilic and the adjoining 
buildings, It Is certain they fuffered by fire. 

While I am writing, I fhall add a few remarks on the heaps 
of iron fcoria, which lie fcattered over the hills of this parifh: 
but would not have it fuppofed from thence, that I conclude 
they were formed by the Romans. 

We need not wonder at the rudenefs of former ages, when 
modern navigators have vilited countries, to which the com- 
monefl metals were unknown, and whofe canoes were hollowed 
by fire or by flints. Arts have been progrefiive towards per- 
fection — oftener difcovered by fome lucky accident, than by the 
efforts of invention or the labours of fludy. 

The oldeft hiflorians we are acquainted with mention gold, 
iilver, and lead, with a familiarity, which ihews they were gene- 
ral in their times. See Homer and the Scriptures pafUm. 

Lucreticus'es conjecture, (Lib. 5.) that the burning of forefb 
lead to -the difcovery of metals, is both ingenious and probable. 



316 LONGOVICUM 

Around of dews the cooling showers, 
And copious stores of fragrant flowers. 
Now where these little beauties fold 
Their eyelids, formed of tender gold, 
And tears, like liquid diamonds, flow 
On all their verdant robes below, 



Iron, copper, and gold ivere found? 



silver of massive weight, and powerful lead, 
when forests dark, on lofty mountains, felt 
the force offre : whether from lightning's fame 
or kindled to alarm some threatening foe. 

Whatever was the cause, ivhy roaring fa?nes, 
horrid and loud, through woods devouring went, 
and scorched the earth, forced by tli enormous heat, 
down into cavities, the melted mass 
ran from the gloiving veins, and formed a sea, 
glittering and smooth, that solid soon became. 
Elevated fituations have always been chofen as the mod 
convenient for fmelting metals. When I fay always, I only 
mean previous to the ufe of machinery in this art. Large 
hills of flag are found on the mountains of Macedonia, fup- 
pofed to have been formed in the time of Philip, the father of 
Alexander. The Peruvians fmelt their ores on high grounds ; 
and it is not much above a century fince wind-furnaces were 
common in Derbyfhire. 



A VISION. 117 

Many a soldier born in Spain, 
In Gaul, or Dacia's fair domain, 
Who found no friend to close his eyes, 
Unhonoured, unremembered lies. 

That the Romans had mines in this country appears from 
the pigs of lead dug up in Derbyshire. One found in 1766, 
has this infcripticn in relief: IMP. CJES. HADRIANI. AVG. 
MEI. LVI, importing that it was the property of the emperor 
Hadrian; another found at Matlock, is thus infcribed: TI. CL 
TR. LVT. RR. EXARG. abbreviations not eafy to decypher. 

The flag of iron, and other metals, has frequently been 
wrought over by the moderns with confiderable advantage — a 
proof of the fuperiority of furnaces, forced by water-bellows, 
over the old method of fmelting in the open air. Watfon's 
Chem. EfTays, vol. iii. Effay viii. 

Agricola, one of the oldeft mineralifts, notices the employ- 
ment of mills in this art, as a thing common in his time. His 
work on metals was publiihed in 1530 Bockler's theatre of 
machines, tranflated from the german into latin, and printed 
at Cologne in 1672, has a plan (fig. lxiix. p. aj.) of a mola- 
pneuftica, or bellows-mill. 

The knowledge of mining in England was very confined till 
the Germans were permitted and encouraged to fettle here for 
that purpofe. In Camden's time, they had extenfive works in 
the neighbourhood of Kefwick. Mag. Brit, vol. 1, p, 370. 

The iron-ftone, which has been fmelted in this parifh, has 
been dug from pits, which retain the name dtelff. To defosh 



118 LONGOVICUM 

But, ever glistening o'er their grave, # 
The elves of night their wings shall wave, 
And ruminating herds and sheep, 
And harmless lambs upon them sleep. 

If Roman arms no longer shine 
O'er walls, that haughty ramparts line, 
Our island's Genius soothes the ire 
Of Faction, fierce with eyes of fire ; 
And, while lovely Freedom reigns 
O'er Power despotic held in chains, 

to dig. Nuclei indeed of this metal are plentifully fcattered 
over the hills, and to be found in great quantities in the fand- 
beds of the brooks, in the neighbourhood of Lanchefler. 

* Except the tumulus at Maiden-law, and the fragment of a 
tombftone found in a field near the flation in 1805, and on 

... O ..... VL .... N ... which was the adjoining, mu- 

.... ADRC .... R ... .. ,. ' . . -u u > 

j-£ •£ jyj tilated micription, I nave heard 

of no fepulchral difcoveries in this neighbourhood. Maden 
Ibaiv, in the Saxon language, fignifies the hill of the virgin, or tke 
Virgins tomb. 



A VISION. 119 

Internal Peace, with sweet caresses. 
All her happy people blesses. 

O Britain, may thy rocky shore 
Ne'er echo with invasion's roar ; 
Brave may thy sons forever be, 
And hold the empire of the sea ! 

But darkly through the gloom of years 
In garments torn w r lth rage appears " 



Abrupt she ceased ; and, waving high 
Her golden harp, resought the sky. 



With various fears and transports tost, 
And all in deepest wonder lost, 
Whether a real scene I viewed 
Or feasted on ideal food, 



120 LONGOVICUM, &C. 

Doubtful, awhile, my senses strayed, 

Alike delighted and afraid ; 

But soon the groaning voice of night 

Called Fancy from her airy flight, 

And Reason waked, well pleased to find 

My head protected from the wind. 



ODES. 



Ibam forte via sacra, sicut meus est mos, 
Nescio quid meditans nugarum. 



Hor. 



ODE i. 

TO THE WESTWINDS. 

Whither, ye timid zephyrs, have you flown, 
Ye people of the westwind, tell me where 
You stretch your aromatic wings, 
And in what gardens of the sun, 
At morning, breathe 
Your pleasant coldness ? Have you southward fled 
With spring to linger on the breezy shores 
Of Ebro, or the olive's leaf 
To paint with everlasting green 
On Tajo's banks r 
Perhaps, you sport upon the golden sands 
Of Niger, and, in heat meridian, dip 

Your wings upon Anzico's plains; 
Or, in the cocoa-vestur'd isles, 
Beyond the line, 
o 2 



124 ODES. 

Kiss the young plantain, and to dance and song 
The simple natives call. O ! ministers 

Of health and medicines, that cure 
The soul with sickness, woe begone — 
O ! back return, 
And brace my languid limbs, and on my cheek, 
With hands benevolent, your crimson lay: 

Come, and repair the dreadful waste, 
Committed by the ruffian tribe, 
That rule the north. 
From the fair pastures of the bright-horn'd bull 
Descending, on the orient shafts of day, 

A thousand sylphs of heat are come 
To strew your grassy road with flowers, 
And bid you hail. 
Already has the primrose decked for you 
Her fragrant palaces, and wide unfolds 

Their vestibule with yellow doors. 
The purple-spotted orchis, too, 
Prepares his halls 



ODES, 125 

Of curious workmanship, where you may spend 
Your festal mornings, or, beneath the gloom 
Of solitary midnight, rest 
In caves, that azure crystal seem 
To eyes like yours. 
Come, in the globe-flower's golden laver, wash 
Your little hands with dew-drops, and in seas 
Of evening tears, upon the leaves 
Of alchemilla, gently plunge 

Your beauteous limbs. 
Will you not sip the woodruff's od'rous lymph 
And banquet on th' ambrosia it affords? 
Will you not in the wortle # sit, 
And luscious nectar drink beneath 
Its ruby dome? 
O! you shall revel on Eliza's lip, 
Madden with rapture on its coral bloorn, 



* Vaccinium myrtillus, Billberry or Bleaberry* The ftamiaa 
of this fhrub form a very beautiful dome. 



126 ODES, 

And, in her gentle eye, behold 
The infant softness of your forms 
Reflected bright. 
Come then, O genial winds, and in your way 
Visit the fairest fountains of the sky; 

And, in the hollow of your hands, 
Bring each a precious drop to cheer 
Returning spring. 

ODE 2. 

TO THE REV. J. COWPER. 
(hor. LIB. II. XIV.) 

How frail, dear Cowper, is the life of man ! 
How swiftly does it hasten to decay ! 

How vain our efforts to retard 

The revolutions of the year! 
No tears or prayers can stop the wheels of time; 
No eloquence avert the blow of death. 

Age clips the well-fledg'd wings of love, 

And hangs its frost on beauty's brow, 



ODES. 127 

Where are the saints, that have escaped the grave ? 
The heroes, from whose mail the fatal dart, 

Blunted and ineffective fell ? 

Where is the philosophic sage, 
Who has outlived the idiots of his time ? 
And where the patriots, and the men of power, 

Whose policy, or solemn nod, 

The king of terror has disarmed ? 
Newton is dead, the pious Lowth no more ; 
And, in an awful hour, Trafalgar saw 

The robe of Nelson wet with gore. 

Thy shade, O Pitt, to heav'n is gone, 
And thine, Cornwallis, to a happy clime. 
All, that are born of woman — all, that feed 

On earthly fruit, must pass the gulph, 

That none have ever passed again. 
Our country, friends, and lovers must be left ; 
The throb of pleasure in our bosoms cooled ; 

And we, to those who dig our graves, 

Be just as if we ne'er had been. 



J28 ODES. 

ODE 3. 

TO THE REV. J. COWPER. 

Man is immortal, and the thirst, 
Unquench'd by ev'ry earthly draught, 
For happiness, that bums his breast, 

O Cowper, proves 
Th' unwasting essence of the soul. 
Why do the zephyrs wake the seeds 
Of slumbering violets, and bid 

The oak assume 
Its kingly honours ? Why, at morn, 
Does the fair handmaid of the day 
Unfold her everlasting doors 

Of ruby blaze, 
And yoke unto her father's car 
His neighing steeds ? And why with care, 
Performed with such unerring skill, 

Does yon pale orb 



ODES. 120 

Increase and wane? And shall the mind, 
That reasons now on future things, 
Sink in the darkness of the grave, 

And cease to be : 
It is not so ! Beyond this earth, 
A shore there is, whose blooming flowers, 
In inextinguishable light, 

Their fragrance breathe : 
Where no rough flints our feet shall bruise, 
No thorns our angel flesh shall tear, 
No wicked men intrude to vex 

Our high-wrought joys 
But where unfading wreaths of bliss 
Shall bind our brows, and songs of praise 
Resound to Him, who bid the soul, 

For ever live. 



13Q ODE*. 



ODE 4. 



TO A BEE. 



Little, humming, toiling bee, 
Type of Gare, from care yet free, 
Anxious not an hour to waste, 
Tell me, whither dost thou haste. 
Scarce the breath of rose-lip'd morn 
Whispers through that dewy thorn ; 
Silence still withholds her flight 
After lazy-footed Night; 
And no lark, with chearful lay, 
Wakes the hours of slumb'ring day : 
But thou com'st, on wings of toil, 
The lily's snowy bell to spoil ; 
And, from its beauteous locks, to steal 
Precious loads of yellow meal. 



ODES. 131 

Harmless plunderer, speed thee well, 
Work and fill thy curious cell; 
Men, who rob, of life despoil ; 
But thou, with never-ceasing toil, 
Com'st, at late and early hour, 
To steal the sweets, but spare the flower, 

ODE 5. 

TO A LADY. 

See, Eliza, how that rill, 
Restless, wandering from the hill, 
.Never tired, or ever dry, 
Turning, winding, passes by. 
Listen to its murm'ring sound, 
Gently whispered all around; 
Hear how echo, from her cell, 
Babbles every idle swell. 

Sober evening, o'er the sky, 
Casts a robe of curious die ; 



13& ODES. 

Tyrian purple, ruby red, 

All its western walls o'erspread ; 

On dark'ning towers, and mountains tall, 

Showers of feeble sunbeams fall ; 

The rills of moonlight, on the clouds, 

Seem like thin, translucent shrouds ; 

And many a glory-circled star 

Paves a way for Cynthia's car. 

In yon pines, in saddest wail, 
Turtles tell a love-sick tale; 
And a blackbird plies its lay 
On yon alder's dark'ning spray. 

Dear Eliza, as that rill 
Never wearies or is still, 
So our God will never cease 
On the good to shed his peace. 
As he clothes the heavens with light, 
And gems with stars the robe of night, 



ODES. 133 

He will throw, from Mercy's seat, 
A ray to guide our erring feet. 

Let us, then, with souls of love, 
Like yon blackbird and yon dove, 
.Up to him, each evening, raise 
Hymns of gratitude and praise. 



finis. 



'//?•&> \X 



ERRATA. 



PAGE. LINE. 

10 II for laid read lay 

17 17 — least r. lest 

31 15 && so 

37 2- /or infinite, read infinite? 

43 16 — with miserable r. with the miferabie 

47 10 — sight r, sighs 

58 7 — courtier's r. courtiers' 

63 8 — pusue r. pursue 

75 a — Bid r. Bade 

99 4 — Odin's r. Selma's 



Akcnhcads, Printers^ 
Newcastle. 



LRB 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: April 2009 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



